Overnight campers' action
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It is not only those living full time in vans that has increased, the same has happened on our canals and rivers where there has been a big increase in house boats trying to avoid mooring fees. However aren't both of these a digression? I thought we were talking about recreational owners causing problems not those who choose a different lifestyle for what ever reason.
peedee
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If I was unskilled and working at pizza deliveries or warehouse packing on a minimum hour contract through an agency I would not want to spend £5,000 a year to live in a double bedroom and share other facilities etc. with the occupants of 4 other homes. It can cost that in Bristol or £9,000 a year for a flat. Many of such jobs only last a short time.
I have known several folk in cheaper areas doing such work and in my area where it is much cheaper to rent and struggling to keep out of debt on the same minimum wage
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And therein lies the problem. If parking areas were provided for touring motorhomes and tougher laws made to move on/ prosecute those who flouted the rules, it would satisfy both residents and the majority of recreational owners alike.
peedee
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+1👍🏻
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No worries, you could go down the other end and park nose to the sea where it is sufficiently long for you.
NB. R2B Do not be deceived by the shadow.
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Found this interesting article, some may already have seen it
Much the same happened in the Loch Lomond area and what is now the Trossachs National Park. Here they did exactly what the article is advocating. They invested and provided sites for wild camping/night stopping but you need a permit costing £3 p.n.to use designated places. Win win for campers and the environment.
peedee
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DD, very true....
our son had a lovely flat in Clifton, but when he and his girlfriend parted (very amicably) neither of them could afford the flat on their own...
he moved further out of town and (with help from the usual sources
) managed to buy a flat of his own...we have a granddaughter now and dote on her, and we are very 'handy' for babysitting, dog walking etc, etc......however, we also have other things in our lives and we like to allow time for ourselves as well as with our children....
yes, we miss them when 'away' (three months coming up in Spain and Portugal) but we spend plenty of time with them throughout the year including Christmas and can easily keep in touch these days.....and coming home isn't that difficult if we really had to...
when away, we do hope to spend plenty of time on seafronts (and plains, mountains...) but I doubt we will feel we are impacting too much on anyone else as we tuck ourselves away...
im sure the local beach side restaurant will be happy to have us call in for lunch...
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Although retired, people are not always a free as is imagined.
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well not quite CY, you are parked on the tarmac and as you say in the marked bay, further down that road it is rough ground with no bays marked and this is where most of the ruck was at Cowes week, from this area you also have easy access to the beach, however, even a 6mtr MH would be a challenge if front and rear bays were occupied and 7.5mtr MH's in some of that area poke out into the road if they go nose in. The ice cream van has a nice reserved hard standing further down, not used in the winter, and next to the loo's, oh! i forgot they are closed during the winter.
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just a thought!!many years ago we used to stay overnight in french service areas and aires on our journey to the sun.We gave up and started to use camp sites after our travelling companions caravan was entered one night and his jeans were stolen (luckily there was no money in them).as i say ,just a thought.
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while not doubting the OPs observational skills, Google provides two 'snapshots' of this area...
firstly, the satellite view, which looks like it might have been taken in summer, certainly a very sunny day and the parking spaces, right up to the 'sandy area' are filled (almost exclusively) with cars....perhaps one MH...
secondly, street view, appears to be taken out of season, with acres/scores of spaces for anyone wishing to park there. however again, pretty much not a MH in sight....might be the odd VW at the sandy end, but that's pretty much it.
to the casual observer, one would not think that there was a persistent MH blight issue.....
on the face of it, it looks like MH don't get a look in in summer, while out of season I'd be annoyed if someone thought i was causing a 'problem' when there were twenty (or more) parking spaces for me (in a MH) to use....
im sure, for Cowes week, there might well have been an influx of visitors, some in their MH who fancied a weekend on the beachfront, but the evidence from Google doesn't support any sort of permanent 'encampment' situation...
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BB thank you for not doubting my observations skills, and as i either cycle or walk the area, when living at home, almost on a daily basis, i do consider myself to be something of an authority on what happens in my local area. Your Google snapshots no doubt focus on 1 particular area, I cycle /walk an area stretching from an area known as Stokes Bay to the Meon shore which is in the Titchfield nature reserve area, never checked the milage but it must be a distance of some 10 miles in total, this covers an area managed by Gosport LC and Fareham LC, most of the Gosport car parks are fee paying, some now have low barriers in place, some even have gates that should be closed from say 2000 hrs to 0600 hrs, dont think this happens, most of the Fareham car parks are FOC including seafront car parking from the East side of Lee on the solent thru to Meon shore in the west. This is a very large number of parking spaces but during say July/August you will find most of them are full, so of course the big percentage of parked vehicles are indeed motor cars, if it was MH's then we would all be seriously concerned, but i dont remember saying MH's were in the majority, and i think i stressed that i have only encountered a few inconsiderate MH users. To the best of my knowledge most of the parking areas including the FOC state no camping/habitation, also the area of your google snapshots if at the Meon Shore end are some what remote, there is a public loo, no shops/restaurants. As this is a big kite boarding area we do get lots of what i would call camper vans rather than MH's, but I love the area so not complaining and in the main we get very little aggro, so we take the rough with the smooth.
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an example of our rough, wish i had taken a photo, 2 MH's, quite old, parked on the seafront i.e. the road, one with petrol genny running and on the pavement, hose down the drain, 1 with what must have been some sort of log burning stove inside judging by the amount of smoke coming out of some sort of chimmney, does not lend itself to maintaining the image of MH owners, but it was out of season and they were only there a couple of nights.
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I'm going to re-read Alan Bennett's story of "The lady in the van" . Here's a photo of when they filmed it.
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Sorry. I missed it. What is or was the major problem?
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It seems that the opinion of the OP has mellowed somewhat as a result of our discussions, that's good! In the space of two days it's gone from, "I do believe MH's are becoming a problem," to
"In the main we get very little aggro, so we take the rough with the smooth."👍0
