Overnight parking in Northumberland
An article in todays Journal says Northumberland County Council voted to allow a one year trial for overnight parking for motorhomes in car parks at Beadnell, Amble and Bamburgh. there will be 8 spaces at Beadnell and 6 at the other 2 locations.
Fees are yet to be decided and spaces will have to be booked in advance,
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Well done to Northumberland County Council for trying to find a solution. Hopefully more councils will follow. The advantage of councils taking this proactive action is that they can better control the issue. I don't suppose they will make a fortune out of it but it might be financially worthwhile. I assume the parking can also we used during the day?
David
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I've heard that £15 is being bandied about. Considering it is merely making existing tarmac without any additional services, water/waste, available, I would have thought a maximum of £10 would be more realistic. At that price one might as well use a CL which, even at the most basic, will have better facilities.
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It is all about location and I would also be happy with that charge, If it was in the right place and for 24 hours. If they expect to relet the space to others during the day I wouldn’t be interested, as that’s when I would want to visit the nearby attraction.
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When we visited Bamburgh last year the car parking had gone from free to minimum £3.50. As most motorhomes take up more room than a car I can't see the financial logic of letting a motorhome stay for 24 hours for £15.
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It perhaps depends on time of year. If they are able to fill it with cars, then I would agree. However, if those spaces are remaining empty in the off season, then filling them with MH’s at £15 seems a sound financial decision. I am sure there are some who would just want to stop the night, but for myself there attraction would be that they are right alongside what I want to visit. We could pull in about noon, spend the afternoon visiting the attraction and depart 9/10 the next day. If I was going to be charged £15 overnight and then another £10 / £15 for the day time, I would probably find a nearby site on the bus route.
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and compensate site owners who are loosing business!Some of these sites are run by the community for the benefit of the community.
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Three nice locations there, and 20 stopover pull ins will hardly ruin things for all the campsites and CLs in the Bamburgh, Beadnell, Amble areas. The last two years has seen many more folks discover just how fabulous this area is, and most sites have been full or near full. First time we encountered the numbers looking just to park up overnight, we were constantly being asked for places to stay on our visits.
It’s good that such stopovers are now coming along. But a huge part of me feels rather sad, as this very special area is now as swamped as other places with visitors. Inland is as spectacular as the coastline, and just as interesting, but not as busy.
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We tour/holiday all year round PD. We had a week on Hadrians Wall early December.
We stayed in Scotland, Borders last early July. Headed down to Bamburgh area for day, and that huge car park, and the little village, and every available space between Seahouses and Bamburgh was heaving with cars and MHs, cars were queuing to get into the big Castle car park. Needless to say, we took one look and headed inland. The council had put a dozen Portaloos up in car park to solve (try to solve😯) a different problem. Midweek visit as well, so goodness knows what is was like at a weekend.2 -
People forget that what seems remote to them isn't to others, Northumberland is close to one of the uk's larger connurbations, Tyneside and the local population has easy access. We've noticed Northumberland get busier over the years. More access will mean more crowding and we'll be killing off the thing we love. I think it's happening in a lot of places. It's good to have provision for travellers but it probably encourages more traffic.
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I’m thinking that if the take up is high then the price could well go a long way to convince the NCC to expand the idea which can only be a good thing👍🏻
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Agree brue, very much commuter territory for Newcastle, as is Hexham. But I fear it has been discovered now by lots of others who have never ever considered it before. Weather has been good last two Summers as well (we swam both lockdown years). A good rainy Summer will see some folks put off for life😉 😎
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The Northumberland Gazette gave some details last year and the proposal for a new campsite. see >HERE<
The parking proposals include advance bookings. I wonder how that will be managed with those who just turn up and take a space?
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ignoring the obvious bias of the moderator I will go back to the announcement that Dumfries a Galloway councils are looking at opening a number of aire de camping car in the area.If one was to examine the situation one would find that the supply of the required services would incur very significant expense!If one was to look at the situation in france,for example,one would find that the local town halls are experiencing costs that are not sustainable and so are selling off the aires and municipal campsites to two main companies.These companies are closing down a fair number of the sites with the result that there are fewer and fewer places for genuine touring caravans.I am of the opinion that the surge in people spending fortunes on camping cars and then expecting to stay in tourist areas for nothing will eventually kill the "hobby"
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As with many things, it’s not really appropriate to compare what happens in the UK with events in Europe. We do not know if LAs in Europe operate on the same basis as those here or how answerable they are to the general public in terms of this type of provision.
I'm sure our UK LAs will each weigh up the pros and cons of feasibility in their own area and, if they decide it could be a money maker, they may well go for it. Obviously, it will incur expense but only an irresponsible LA would launch such a project without a good idea of the likely return and benefits to the community. My opinion is that we have scope to allow all types of overnight stops without damaging the existing campsite businesses. As for killing the hobby, I can’t see your logic there.
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If there are few or no "proper" camp sites left where are people with tourers going to stay whilst exploring an area?If you look at Dumfries and Galloway as an example as an area for "aire de camping car"there is no cheap and easy way to lay on facilities for disposal of grey or black waste,fresh water and electricity,without overloading the current infrastructure.Lets face it......the scottish government are unable to even build a ferry!
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Why do you assume there will be no 'proper' campsites left? There will always be a greater call for sites than for stopovers, in my opinion. Even in the extremely unlikely event of every MH using an aire type facility, there will still be tuggers and tenters looking for sites.
I can’t comment on your devolved administration's ability to build ferries but I already said expense will be incurred in the provision of stopping places and each LA will weigh that up in with the pros and cons.
I am neither pro nor anti the development of overnight stopping places but am attempting to address the points you possibly overlooked.
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I am not quite sure where the bias is? Whilst I am a motorhomer I do tend to stay on campsites. However our hobby is a pretty broad church which I believe has got even broader in the last couple of years with many people taking to camper vans/conversions who don't have a tradition of staying on campsites. There are two ways of dealing with this. You either introduce very draconian rules that prevents anything representing anything like a motorhome from parking anywhere other than a, what you might call a proper campsite or if you are more enlightened you look for alternatives. People parking off campsite will continue and probably become more of a problem. Those Councils that look to provide facilities, however basic will help the alternative becoming a bigger issue. It's just common sense.
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We have just been into Kirkcudbright today and they have provided an area in the Castledykes park for overnight stops for 3 M/Hs only on Hardstanding at £10 pn with water, EHU and an elsan disposal point, and also they allow filling up with water and dumping for £4. There was one pitch occupied when we past and a second M/H was just arriving around 2:00 this afternoon.
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There is a new aire at Findhorn right next to the beach, 24 hr parking with fresh water, waste dump and grey water dump £15 a night. Not sure if you have to pre book.
Also provision at The Falkirk Wheel also £15 a night but includes hook up and access to a toilet that you get a key for.
I like the idea of these types of set up but not sure how they will be monitored. If the fee is £10 then I would be happy with that for overnight parking say 5pm to 10am. If it's to be £15 then I would expect water and waste facilities and possibly metered electricity though not essential.
Unless there is a barrier type setup or a person on site how are you going to control how long vehicles stay and if you have to book before had again how would you prevent passing vehicles from just parking up.
We all know how much notice cars take of the notices at service stations in the 'Caravans Only' section.
Forestry Commission allow overnight parking at some of their sites in Scotland I think that is £10 now.
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I only added my post above on here as I couldn't find the post about the provisions being made in Scotland, I think posted originally by Peedee.
TG, the one at Kirkcudbright has 3 designated bays separated by blocks of wood. I didn't notice how they were charging for EHU, but the power points were similar to those on a club site. There's lots of other areas for parking in the Castledykes park for cars etc.
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When I was there last year it was £4.50 for 3 hours. The three car parks are now open for pre booked overnight stop overs. One night only allowed for £12( 6pm. to 8am) day time rates apply outside these hours. If you just turn up there is a QR code to scan which takes you to a web site to check availability and book if any places are free.
peedee
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