So what did the Club ever do for Motorcaravanners?
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I wasn’t actually asking you, Rufs, but please tell me what you feel is sensible about the club using the money you have put into its coffers to provide a chain of nightstops across the country from which you will be barred as you are not a motorhomer?
Incidentally, terms such as ‘usual gang’ (whoever they are) are deemed to be name calling and in breach of the guidelines.
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👏🏻👏🏻That’s surely the post of the week 🏆 👏🏻👏🏻
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but I do DD, yes of course both may have different wants and needs. But what you fail to understand is that the CAMC is just that, there is more than a hint in the title, especially the and part. It includes both caravans and MHs. It caters for both but more importantly for every (this is the part you fail to understand or you are winding people up as you often claim happily to do) member without fail. Money from all is spent for all.
At present all pitches take caravans and MHs, no one is excluded.
MHs may want different things but it is simply selfish to expect that the needs of one is more important than the other.
Once again, this is how the club operates. If you feel they do not cater for your needs then go elsewhere or start your own club?
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I wasn’t actually asking you, Rufs,
as a paid up member, I do not need your permission to reply to a post.
but please tell me what you feel is sensible about the club using the money you have put into its coffers to provide a chain of nightstops across the country from which you will be barred as you are not a motorhomer?
am certainly not advocating this, my position on this briefly is, all club sites should stay as is, when it comes to charging for pitches, so whoever rocks up at a site in whatever, if a pitch is £15 everybody pays £15. If you have purchased a very expensive MH/caravan and dont need the facilities, sorry, they are provided if you dont want to use them dont use them, your choice.
Ok to provide dumping grounds for waste water or whatever, this is sensible, perhaps we wont see Mh's leaving site with water pouring out of the waste pipe.
As for providing a chain of nightstops, no way, in my opinion this would take revenue away from the club by reducing occupancy rates and would require a very large amount of new investment, money which could be spent on improving existing sites. Why build something you maybe charge £5/£10 per night when you have existing at £15+ per night.
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Bells are used in primary schools, BB - they were done away with in the secondary schools I worked in a good 25 years ago! Mind you, given the way this thread has gone a bell might be very useful now.
Still I would be interested in your answers to my questions which were a genuine attempt to understand your point of view more. But given your apparent liking for the Michael Howard approach to answering awkward questions, I won't be holding my breath!
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For goodness sake, I didn’t say you needed my permission!
We are broadly in agreement which makes me wonder why you referred to the thread, or OP, as sensible. 🤔
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But that’s equal. Where is the inequality at present - the bias towards caravanners?
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As Eurotraveller has said the market is changing, motorhome ownership is on the increase in the UK and with it comes an increasing demand for simple short term night stop facilities. This thread and that highlighting the increase in self reliance of energy and the requirements for less facilities, e.g. EHU, are driven by this changing market. The question in my mind and that of the OP is:
Is the Club meeting these requirements or even planning to meet them?
The signs are not that good, at the moment they are just tinkering around the edges. In the meantime, in the last 15 years, at least three organisations have made attempts at addressing this market, "Brit Stops" is one of them and while they seem to have got a foothold in the market, none, as yet, have the resource that the Club has to progress further. I would like to think it is only a question of time before they do or someone with the wherewithal moves in or, like the Scottish Tourist Board, it dawns on authorities responsible for tourist areas that there is money to be made by making better provision for touring motorhomes.
If the Club really does want to attract those new to motorhome touring and retain them, or encourage exisiting motorhome owning members to make more use of their sites, in my view they need to be doing more to stop members turning to other organisations.
peedee
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Well, I agree, that could very easily be achieved by offering a non EHU option as I've already said, for a modest reduction in fee. Personally, given what I've seen on C&CC sites I doubt it would have much take up, but it would be quicker and easier than installing meters.
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We were Motor caravanners long before we were Caravanning members. It didn’t need a name change 30 plus years ago to convince us that Club was worth joining with our tiny camper van. Ok, at the time there were some stuffy Wardens, but that was mainly because our camper looked like a car until we deployed roof and set up interior.
So it’s got nothing to do with caravans being favoured over MH’s. It’s more that MHs have become more popular in this country, and those who use a MH overseas, where it’s an established culture, feel the need to expect the Club to replicate overseas type services and conditions.There’s only a few things we think might want Club to change in terms of making touring with MH easier, one of which is arrival times. Putting in drive over waste drains is good, but it’s more of a health and safety issue and a nod towards the age of those taking up MH ownership in this country, ie bending and lifting are now difficult.
MH or caravan, we are always made welcome at Club Sites. If they don’t meet our particular touring needs all the time, then we include sites and places that do. There are plenty of site options around. Those who want to park in town centres should lobby local authorities or supermarkets. (Mind you, if you parked in most local Aldi car parks in this country overnight, you might find yourself requiring a new set of wheels upon waking up!)
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think a couple of sentences in your post raise an interesting question
So it’s got nothing to do with caravans being favoured over MH’s. It’s more that MHs have become more popular in this country,
Putting in drive over waste drains is good, but it’s more of a health and safety issue and a nod towards the age of those taking up MH ownership in this country, ie bending and lifting are now difficult.
by implication, and correct me if i am wrong, your inference is that it is the current older generation who are making Mh'ing so popular
and the question, so , how long will MH's be so popular ?, can the younger generation afford such luxury items?. A £50k MH for example is quite a few all inclusives, and I saw an advert only this morning for Easy Jet, £49 return to Menorca, whats that a couple of hundred miles in a MH or car tugging.
also with the advent of EV's and banishing diesel, will MH's continue to be so popular.
If i was writing a business case for building new infrastucture to accomodate MH's I would certainly be asking these questions as a starting item.
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One thing that puzzles me about this rhetoric that 'the times they are a changing' and that motoromers want nothing more than a patch of hard ground and low fees doesn't quite gel with what I see. I see plenty of motorhomes using the sites. At Southport for the Christmas week the pitch fees are high. Because of location it is popular with motorhomes as well as caravans. There are usually around 8 or so motorhomes on the very large gated car park type area closer to town alongside pleasureland. Price there is from £8 to £10 a night with Waste, water etcplus £3 for 5amp EHU if required. It seems that some want to use that facility and save probably £20 a night at that time of year but many do not. So it does not appeal to all motorhomers as if they were a homogeneous species.
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The sites and the way CC Ltd operates them is heavily biased towards the uses and needs of towed caravans and caravanners.
state how?
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Perhaps we need to question the future prospects for taking a small living unit about the country at all?
Could the Caravan Club actually know what they are doing with all the yurts and things they are trialing? Will some day the surviving sites have perhaps just one or two pitches for people who want to bring their own accomodation?
Anyone fancy looking through a list of the one-time Caravan Club sites now no longer part of the network and count up for me how many are presently occupied by static caravans, houses, flats etc.
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what nonsense (you are winding people up again aren't you or clutching at straws?)
You are really saying that EHU is the decisive factor in the bias toward caravans?
Caravans can't and don't have similar solar panels to MHs?
Caravans can't survive with EHU?
So MH do not connect to EHU when there is a choice? I think people have said that on CCC all MHs take up the offer?
So why are there so many MH on club sites? I don't get it?
Unless you claim the BB theory of either not being 'savvy' enough or too 'timid' is correct why so many? Why aren't all these MH using non EHU or EHU choice sites?
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Perhaps we need to question the future prospects for taking a small living unit about the country at all?
for those that do, maybe a "Time Share" approach could be deployed. I already know familes who have pooled resources to buy a unit and take it in turns to use as and when. Six berth caravan on site with 2 adults and 4 children is still good value for money if you dont have the full outlay for a unit.
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yes +1
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Frankly, DD, that’s balderdash.
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I have long viewed the C&MC as a kind of hotel chain. Moreover, I have always thought it to be at the quality end of the market, setting the standard by which others are judged.
Considering the OPs well argued case I turned to the hotel analogy and asked myself how an upmarket hotel chain would respond.
Imagine if I was to say that I would like to stay in your famous hotel, but I needed a lower price because, I had no plans to take a shower, I didn't need heating, or lighting, or a restaurant, or a pool, or a gym, just a small space with a bed. "Well sir," might come the reply, "We are not in that kind of business and do not plan to be because we are very often full. But there is a very nice hostel around the corner that might suit."
Market forces will decide who provides what kind product. There are prestigious hotels, budgets brands, Fawlty Towers, B&Bs, bunkhouses and so on. You pays you money and takes your choice. If there is profit in it you will get your wish.
But the Hilton is not going to go into the bunkhouse business and I do not see the CAMC developing MotorCaravan Lite sites or facilities when it may be harder to make it pay and others are better placed to do so. Meantime, we will have to make do with the market offering we have
Now I am off to the rather nice golf club round the corner to see if they will put in Crazy Golf, because I really don't want to pay for a clubhouse, 18 holes and all that grass. I guess they will say membership is not compulsory, sir.
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I am sure that DD will say that it is because motorhomers don't need EHU. Which as a generalisation may be true for many (maybe most?) motorhomers but not all.
More relevant though is not what users need but more importantly what they want. (See my earlier post about Southport where motorhomes choose to pay £33.60 for two rather than £10 on the nearby basic site).
Why would they? Simply because they prefer to use the CC site. Many use a CC site and don't need the facilities block and that includes me. I am paying about £10 a night for the two of us to have facilities that we often manage happily without. That goes with the site choice.
Don't assume that because somebody does not need something that they don't want it. I don't need a scotch but when I have prepared a casserole for our evening meal in advance but I shall dam well have one out of of the unopened bottle of Abelour that I received at Christmas.
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Now I am off to the rather nice golf club round the corner to see if they will put in Crazy Golf, because I really don't want to pay for a clubhouse, 18 holes and all that grass. I guess they will say membership is not compulsory, sir.
Perhaps they will let you just play the back nine provided you Tee off no later than 9.30am ?
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