Parking fines for length of vehicle
Hi all -
After a break from the campervan life and selling my old camper with regret, I'm currently researching a new base vehicle for a conversion of my own and considering a Boxer/Ducato/Relay in the L2 length (5.4m). This is longer than my last van, and much longer than the average car park and after some initial reading I can see that it's possible to receive fines for sticking over (although so many seem to do it). I'm wondering if anyone has actually received these fines and if anyone has any experience with this length of vehicle? I'd love to hear some thoughts from some kind folks!
Thanks so much
Comments
-
Parking spaces may vary but the golden rule is park within the defined bay. Ignore that at your peril or pay for 2 bays. Beyond that it becomes more problematic e.g, what if part of your vehicle overhangs a verge beyond the rear of the bay? Generally if you’re not obstructing anybody you’ll be ok, but there’s no guarantee. That said, a 5.4m van is relatively easy to park.
0 -
Apart from VW type campers, few motorhomes are that short and most parking bays are seldom over 5m. Alternative provision for anything longer is generally restricted to commercial coaches.
0 -
We have a compact VW Autosleeper Gatcombe, it’s 5.5 metres, and not as wide as the boxy, higher straight sided MH’s. We have had few issues in our 8 years of ownership, you can usually find somewhere this length of vehicle can fit in, including the occasional on road parking space. There are often longer vehicles, such as the big Isuzu’s and Ford pickups that might be parked up overhanging the parking spaces. We try to find somewhere to overhang a verge, or back up to a hedge occasionally. In our early days, we often found and asked a parking Warden for help and suggestions. I think they rather liked the pro active approach, and were invariably rather helpful. We have never had a ticket or a fine. You learn to assess just how strict some places are with parking, some are good, some are not. Don’t tangle with Whitby, Scarborough, Filey...........they fine for anything! ☹️
0 -
The "normal" size for a car parking space is 4.8 metres long x 2.4 metres wide. Source British Parking Association. Consequently save for some micro campers (and even they are often over 4.8 metres it is impossible to park within the bay (as to length ) in most car parks and also difficult as to width if you count the mirrors, So that a breach of rules to park within the lines is inevitable for most motorhome users. And even some cars e.g. a Bentley Continental are over 4.8 metres long. Consequently an aggressive parking company/council could be opportunistic if they wanted to be. So far I have not fallen foul of this in 11 years using a 5.4 metre van.
Somewhat irrelevantly I have run in to height problems on one occasion in Spain when a parking direction at a Supermarket along a track with kerbs at either side turned a corner leading into an underground car park. Reversing was difficult for me and all the cars following me. On another occasion In Aquilea where a Carrefour Supermarket was newly rebuilt they had no height barrier on entry but a low one on exit. The traffic flow on entry and one way system made it almost impossible to drive out the "IN". So I asked the security guard to assist with traffic control which he refused to do with a shrug of his shoulders. However since I was blocking the exit he quite soon had to review his position especially as I was unable to understand his directions to move my vehicle
0 -
Some of those Spanish underground carparks are tight for a car let alone a camper van. Back in the good ole UK, I wonder how Range Rovers get on with parking bays as they are 5m.
0 -
Our Nuevo is about 5.7 m long
When we visited Cheddar I backed into a space which had a fence along it as I was doing this the warden shouted to me (do me a favour, turn round and drive in then I will come and explain)
This I did, he pointed out that now I have driven into the space, all my wheels were within the Parking bay lines but of course my back end stuck out a bit, he said, dosen't matter that you are sticking out, that's up to other drivers to go round you, but if you had reversed in your front wheels would have been outside the bay and I would have to issue a ticket.
This apparently applies to all council car parks across the country, but personally I would check it out at the time.
Pete
0 -
I would generally reverse in to a slot so that my back end could overhang a grass verge. You would have to have a very long wheelbase not to get all your wheels within 4.8m. I suppose it might be different if the overhang space was small and the length behind your axle was long.
0 -
Although what you say is true and even with ours I can get the wheels inside the lines, it’s width means the adjacent spaces become unusable as the sides are just about level with the lines. Couldn’t this be counted as a parking infringement? Better to pay for two spaces, also much easier for getting out if the car park fills up.
0 -
Parking a larger vehicle is about making sure you don’t hinder other users as well. We adopt the overhang method where we can, but I am always mindful of wheelchairs and pushchairs being able to get through behind us. Width can be an issue as well, useless if you cannot get in or out of your vehicle. NT are being a bit more pro active in terms of camper/MH parking at certain facilities. Snowshill Manor had a dedicated, and coned off section that we were directed to, very handy, and an easy park up in what is a quite tight parking area altogether.
0
