Practical Ideas for Nightstops in UK
This new thread is aimed at considering what sort of nightstops we should aim for and where they should be, rather than whether we should bother with them at all. This opening post outlines the background and concept.
A debate about whether CC should get involved in nightstops at all is still continuing on the original Thread: “UK Nightstops for Motorhomes” so you are invited to put general comments on there, rather than on this more “nuts and bolts” discussion. The idea of two separate Threads is of course to allow the two strands of discussion to thrive without cluttering each other up.
Background
Nightstops are different from campsites and they serve a different purpose. They are not a threat to campsites in any way, they are additional parking places where camping units, especially but not exclusively motorhomes, stay overnight while their owners rest, that’s all. They are not necessarily the sort of pace where you would get your table and chairs out or unroll your canopy, even if some of them do have enough space for that.
For example Motorway Service Areas in UK are designed to be rest areas and they permit overnight parking with people sleeping in vehicles. Nightstops are best considered as variants on that theme rather than as a new sort of campsite.
Because they are not campsites, campsite rules and regulations do not apply to nightstops, any more than camping rules would apply to any other car park if camping-type vehicles are using them. Traffic Orders and suchlike govern car parks, not camping requirements. That’s an important distinction.
Continental Experience
Nightstops of a wide variety of sorts have already been developed on the Continent. They are sometimes smart, purpose designed locations with good facilities and sometimes simply a patch of spare land on which parking is permitted. I use the term nightstop to refer to all non-campsite overnight parking locations. In France they are called Aires and in Germany they are Stelplatz, both meaning parking “area”.
On the Continent nightstops, except on motorway service areas, are exclusively for motorhomes and caravans are not allowed. But in UK we are starting with much more of a clean sheet so one of the advantages of CC getting involved constructively will be to incorporate ways for caravans to use this type of facility, perhaps even other types of camping unit too. Please bear that in mind when you help to develop this discussion.
Sometimes the motorhome nightstop is merely a car park shared with cars and lorries and there may be no special facilities. Sometimes there is a marked off motorhome area or better and there may be facilities for drinking water, emptying tanks and maybe an electricity supply. More often than not there will be a system for collecting fees, which are typically €5 to €10 per vehicle night, sometimes more. The fee is often collected by machine and apart from service visits, Nightstops are almost invariably unmanned.
Continental nightstops vary from lightly used to jammed full most of the time, in which case motorhomes are usually parked side-by-side with two metres or less between them - as they could be on UK Motorway Service Areas and as lorries always are on lorry parks while their drivers sleep in the cabs.
Existing UK non-motorway nightstops
There are currently relatively few non-motorway nightstops in UK and they are mostly car parks – either local authority car parks or a variety of private ones, often pubs. Britstops lists 377 in its current list of UK locations – all places where the owner simply allows overnight parking, sometimes for customers only. They are not licensed as campsites.
There are other listings of UK nightstops, including a growing set of pub car parks which are certificated as CLs by the Motor Caravan Club in cooperation with Practical Motorhome Magazine, and which presumably therefore have to apply campsite separation distances – and they are of course limited to only five vans.
The grand total of nightstops in UK will currently be a lot less than 1,000. Few will have purpose-designed facilities for dumping tanks although they may have a water tap.
Some assumptions
I suggest we assume that people who use nightstops are either in transit across Country or are in motorhomes in a touring area, roaming during the day and in need of a parking place (but not necessarily a campsite) overnight. While touring in an area, caravans (and many motorhomes) would presumably prefer to use campsites.
Continental experience suggests that we should assume a short duration of stay, maybe not even overnight if the need is merely to empty tanks. Coin or token-operated service posts are provided for these purposes. Assuming stays of one to a maximum of two or three nights and no pre-booking is probably sensible.
The barrier technology to control access exits and so do robust and reliable designs for service bollards, so we could benefit from those.
I doubt if one design or type of nightstop will solve the whole challenge. Nightstops don’t have to be purpose made and many on the Continent exploit car parks which are under-used at night. Some existing UK nightstops are simply car parks during the day and they provide no special facilities. Some nightstops are provided commercially on parking areas outside campsites (a bit like the late arrivals area of a CC campsite but bigger) so that you can chose to park outside on the gravel and survive on your own or pay more and go inside to use the facilities.
Nightstop locations in UK would require level hard standing as a minimum, with a water supply and tank dumping as desirable extras. Electricity would get used if it’s there by motorhomes and would presumably be more desirable for caravans, but that’s also by no means essential.
That’s the broad briefing but it’s by no means exhaustive – now what are your ideas for nightstops in UK? Can we benefit from what’s been done on the Continent but rationalise and improve on it rather than end up with an ad hoc mess like some are abroad? Maybe that question leads to an opportunity for CC to design something better.