Why do they bother?
This was the scene that greeted me on both occasion I called in at the motorway services. Why do they bother providing caravan parking if it is impossible to use them because they are full up with cars. There were plenty of empty car spaces. If the owners, in this case Road Chef, cannot be bothered to police the parking they may as well not bother providing caravan spaces. I parked across the back of all six spaces, at least no one could easily get in until I left.
Comments
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I thought the official caravan/motorhome parking was in the coach parking area at Oxford?
David
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Not sure how that can be a fair statement. If PeeDee can't use the allocated spaces then he has two choices, be as bad as the others as you state ? or leave the site in the hope that the next place has somewhere to park. I know what I would do
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Has anyone tried to park with their caravan at the Folkstone services? The caravan spaces where full with 'white vans' on the 2 occasions I used the services in Nov. I too wondered why bother having caravan spaces. I was not towing but would have been tempted to park over the painted white sign on the surface 'Caravans Only' and gone into the services for a slow break thus blocking in the offenders!
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No the picture is London bound.
David
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On occasion, Surfer, some of us have need to pull off when we can. As a Diabetic, if I feel that my sugar levels are dropping it would be neither safe nor legal for me to drive to the next Services. Indeed I would only get "stressed" about it if I could NOT park for 15 -- 30 minutes until I was back within limits again. It could well be that drivers with other complaints/illnesses need to do the same, and that's not taking account of any other occupants of the vehicle.
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Driving on to the next services is not an option for many. All sorts of reasons mean a driver needs to stop - and if there is nowhere to park I would have done exactly what PeeDee did and park in front of the vehicles in the caravan bay. BUT I would have left my OH in the car and used the services, then gone back to the car, so in an emergency the caravan could be moved allowing the parked cars to exit when they needed to. But I would have explained to anyone returning to a parked car that caravan drivers need to stop too and please think before filling the bays provided for them.
A bit of tolerance either way is the best solution.
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We stopped off at Woodhall northbound on the M1, yesterday. Got to be the worst service station on the motorway network. They actually have dedicated caravan parking bays but unfortunately someone forgot to put the signs up telling you that, as you drive in. Consequently, as we drove past the car parking area on the way to the HGV park - there they were - all empty! But too late to get to them.
According to one truck driver, we were the third caravaner he had spoken to who whilst he had been there who had complained about the lack of signs.
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Most services that provide caravan parking are the same, but moving slightly off topic, why in so many services are the spaces marked in such a way that you need to either reverse in or out of a space. With so much pedestrian and traffic movement around the area it seems an unnecessary risk of accidents. The non caravan traffic passing behind seem oblivious to the risks.
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Heads up for anyone using the the service station on the M65 at Blackburn, J4. There is an actual sign as you approach the service station for caravan parking. IGNORE IT. It leads into the main small car park used exclusively by cars. There is no designated caravan parking at all and space is at a premium. Instead turn left before the sign and head towards the lorry park and head over to the right hand side (opposite the car park but separated by a path.) There you will find some old lettering that says Caravans. These bays are big enough for you with plenty of space to move around when parking or leaving.There are about 6 of them.
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We use caravan-specific parking areas where we can, and HGV parking areas where we cannot. Since I plan to avoid the high price of diesel at M-way services, and we always carry our own food and drink on board, we are thankful that the law demands a reasonable rest period without charges and simply tolerate the generally poor standards available.
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I can only remember 2 occasions in the last several years when we've actually stopped at motorway services. Nowadays, if the journey is too long to do in one go, we simply look for a CL as an overnight stop. We've discovered some lovely areas that we might not otherwise thought of visiting and arrive at our eventual destination fully refreshed.
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About every 3 hours actually. But if we were heading for somewhere 8 hours away it would be part of a longer tour, so maybe a couple of days at one CL then another couple further on - it's what we'll be doing when we head northwards in May.
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AA, RAC and even Police vehicles, not to mention Motorway Maintenance and White Van Man, all seem to think it is OK to use Caravans Only spaces!
Are there any services that provide dedicated spaces for vehicles such as Transit vans and MHs which obviously are too big for car spaces but do not need the length of a car plus caravan bay?
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Not that I’ve found. It’s a toss up whether to go with the HGVs or the caravans.
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If it’s any consolation, it’s far worse in France, usually when it’s hot people will park in the shade however the space is designated. It’s infuriating. Also, us poor electric car drivers are faced with people with ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) cars parking in charger bays. At least they can get fined for it (apparently it’s called being “ICEd”).
It would be nice to see at least an attempt to police caravan parking areas.
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add 100 to that
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Maidstone - most times ....
And a French Motorway Aire ....
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