Wild Camping at Black Knowl
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I know people do post about touring in their outfit, probably all caravans, on EHU without a battery but does anyone actually do that? Because they will be the only ones who might have been affected by not being on EHU for six hours (was it?). Everyone else will still have lighting and also very probably heating by using gas.
Also if one didn't have lighting then go to sleep?
Actually the OP saying no heating is a bit of a red herring in my view as it's been warm enough this week not to need it in a caravan or MH I would have thought?
So compensation? Wouldn't have even crossed my mind.
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Personaly in this case I would not expect any compensation but when there is an unexpected outage I would expect some communication from the on site staff.
But let me pose this question. If you went to the movies, the talking picture house for the older members, and the power failed three quarters of the way through the film I expect everybody would want a refund from the cinema, even though they are not the power provider.
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You’ve answered my question with a question.🤷🏻♂️
I’ll not do you the same discourtesy but say yes, I would expect a refund or return ticket from the ‘picture house' (how quaint!). However, you are not comparing like with like. That example does not equate to the Black Knowl situation in any way because in the case of a cinema, seeing the movie is the whole entity on offer and the total point of being there and no power supply means they can offer nothing. Our customer experience is reliant on the cinema delivering the movie whether by mains electric, gennie, or whatever. If they fail to do that, they are in breach of contract.
In the case of a camp site, the power supply is only a tiny part of the whole package and we can continue to camp there with hardly any difference. The holiday experience is not ruined as our stay is not dependent on EHU and we still have the use of the site. You’re comparing apples with oranges, G.
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We must agree to disagree on the idea of CAMC compensating customers in this particular instance of a few hours outage at night.
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Are you saying that if a power failure happens at 10pm you expect the wardens to go around all outfits?
As to your question, apart from there not being any member alive who can remember nothing but talking pictures, as said a totally different matter altogether.
What exactly do you feel people have lost in those hours without EHU?
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Thanks for clarifying.
I think it's more a case of common sense than customer service.
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We experienced excellent customer service whilst away at Sandringham - at Christmas - a few years ago. It wasn't in respect of electricity - but they ran out of gas because the automated mechanism whereby the tank 'talks' to Calor when it needs filling, failed. The wardens came round to every van - early in the morning before they would normally be on duty and advised that there would be no hot water in the shower blocks and offered a free nights stay by way of an apology. In actual fact, Calor turned up within a couple of hours and everything was back up and running very quickly.
Did we expect compensation - no. Did we claim our 'free night' - no - we had already paid for our stay and we hadn't really been inconvenienced.
Let's face it - things go wrong when we're away in our vans - and it's all part of coping with life to find a way around it and 'make do'. To me, using your ingenuity and imagination to cope with these trivial issues is all part of the 'adventure'. Losing electricity for a few hours, in a van that's designed to go 'off grid' hardly warrants a second thought.
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DaveCyn wrote" By the way, wild camping is done by hikers/cyclists with tents, NOT by people in motorhomes/camper vans. That's dirty camping!"
How is it 'dirty' camping? Apart from a few footprints, there would/should be no trace.
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So unless it's the telly, it's no great hardship.
AC...most LV owners purchase the 12v version of a tv...well the ones I know do....a few years ago our dealer used to give away an Avtex (18") 12v TV with every new LV....
We can usually...and have done... manage 48hrs without leccy
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"Losing electricity for a few hours, in a van that's designed to go 'off grid' hardly warrants a second thought."
"So unless it's the telly, it's no great hardship."
Notwithstanding the 'compensation' issue debated above, these comments are right, and other than the fridge beeping (it may even auto change to gas) some folk wouldn't even realise they've lost mains, not sure we would.
An outage like this might just be a gentle introduction to realising that their vans DO work just as well without mains.
oh, the van worked for fine overnight, I'll try the following day....oh, that works too.
it's a bit like learning to swim, you start by taking a small step into the water and gradually lose the reliance for back up...mains. that small step then becomes a larger one and confidence grows.
For any van with a solar panel, it's easy to test a van's off grid performance on an EHU site with the fall back of mains power.
Just turn off the battery charger and let the panel charge the battery and use 12v USB ports for charging phones etc. Run your tv from 12v and your fridge and hob kettle from gas. What do we really need mains for?
If there's a problem or the battery can't sustain you anymore just turn the charger back on. It's easy to try and risk free.
Ive just looked at a site in Devon that wants £5.50 a night for electricity. That's almost £40 for a weeks stay. That £40 would get you 4 nights on a Temporary Holiday Site or Rally. It would also immediately pay for any change in gas usage.
there's so much sun about at the moment, it seems a shame not to be using it for something useful. We had nine days on a non EHU site recently with no power issues. £11 a night and walking distance to the beach of a busy seaside town.
we will be doing several days on a THS at Lymington next week prior to another site in the New Forest. £10 a night and within walking distance of the lovely town and harbour. Can't get a full fat campsite anywhere this close to these sort of towns but THS sites are often close to the action...but no EHU. Cheap AND convenient.
If one 'takes that plunge' and gives it a go, success/confidence can lead to a whole new world of vanning locations, non EHU CL/CS and THS where there is a whole calendar of events waiting to be discovered.
good luck to anyone trying this out, always happy to help (perhaps in another thread) if anyone has questions. Plenty of support here for those interested.
back to 'compensation'😇
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To the OP, I'm sorry to hear you have had issues with power on the campsite. I've messaged the UK campsite team to see if I can get some information for you on the situation.
To everyone contributing to this discussion can I please ask that you be mindful of your posts and respectful of others views. Even if you don't agree, keep conversation friendly and free from arguments. Please re-read your posts to make sure they couldn't be considered as antagonistic, even if that wasn't your intention.
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Yes, I absolutely agree that there will be a tiny minority out there that might be ultra dependent upon electricity. But in my experience, not far off 40 years now, most in those circumstances will be intelligent and prepared enough to have foreseen such an issue, not least by visiting the link I posted in my first post on this thread.
As for your second statement (so predictable from you and your let’s hit the CAMC with whatever big stick is to hand, if I was at the Club I would be hooting with laughter at you….hates us, but still pays the fees🤣🤣) Site staff are always around for emergencies, true emergencies, no matter what time of day. I have first hand experience of this, having been taken very ill early one morning, the staff were there like a shot with a defibrillator, first aid kit, and stayed with me until the Ambulance arrived. And checked up later in day to see if all was ok. So, they go above and beyond, as most realise they do.
This thread is just the thin end of the “compensation culture”. Things happen, but some have to find someone to blame, someone to kick. Thankfully not everyone.
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Not if you give it some thought.
The cinema is a service provider and for the price of an admission ticket not only do you get access to a seat and the film of your choice, but you also have access to all the facilities of the cinema like toilets, drinking water, access to food and staff etc.
The CAMC is also a service provider and for the price of 'admission' not only do you have the club site of your choice, the pitch of your choice and on some sites the choice of EHU or not but you also have access to the facilities of the site, like the toilets/showers, water from the service point, dishwashing area, basic essentials from the site shop and staff etc.
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Are European 'Aires' the answer to Scotland's dirty campers?
See this report.
Not everybody is as responsible as you cyberyacht
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-57803377
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Apples and oranges, as I explained earlier in the thread, G. I won’t go over it all again because it’s quite plain but, to use the cinema comparison accurately, it is my contention that the cinema would need to fail only to offer ice creams to be on a par with a club site losing lekky for a few hours overnight.
By your own admission, the core business of the site can continue.
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You went to see a specific film at a cinema why would you not get a refund or tickets for another day
The facilities were a bonus
what did you lose at Black Knowl?apart from the loss of mains power?🤔
- And they have a shop at Black Knoll? That is an voluntary extra supplied by the Manager from his own pocket
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Hi everyone,
I've got some further information from the UK Sites team on the stuation and I hope this helps.
We were advised by SSE power that they would be carrying out mandatory repairs to the local substation. This would cause a power cut in the region supplied with mains electric via this substation - which included Black Knowl Club Campsite. SSE provided Black Knowl with a large generator to run power to the site during this power cut, and to ensure toilet blocks could remain open.
In July the campsite was notified by SSE of mandatory power cut (as above). We had no choice on if or when the work could be completed. This was a mandatory instruction by SSE power company and beyond the control of the Club.Initially SSE said this would be for a whole week. The Site team however, were able to negotiate this power outage down to 2-days, the 8 & 9 Aug as well as obtain a generator from SSE.
On 13 July the Before You Travel webpage was updated with the following message - "Due to planned maintenance at a local substation, the site will be without mains electricity and will be operated off a large generator on 8th and 9th August. Power to site will be cut for 1-hour on both days while the generator is connected/disconnected and the generator will create a level of noise which may be heard from your pitch."
All pre-stay emails would have advised site guests to review the Before You Travel page before travel. Site staff also placed posters on the entry/exit doors in the toilet blocks to ensure this message could be seen/read easily.
There was unfortunately an unexpected issue during this work. The generator supplied and delivered by SSE was unknowingly faulty. It tripped at 8pm on the evening of 8th Aug. The site team called SSE out who had to change the generator for another one. This was actioned and the new generator was up and running by 1am in the early morning of 9th Aug. The site had to close the toilet blocks between 8pm-1am as the water is powered by a pump which can't operate without any power supply. Site staff advised as many site guests that they could of the situation, particularly concentrating on those with campervans that had no onboard facilities.
On the 9th Aug the mains power was back on at 3.45pm. The toilet blocks closed between 3.45-4.15pm while the generator was disconnected and mains power was reconnected. This was to ensure pumps for toilet blocks would not be impacted by switch over of electric supply. At 4.15pm the toilet blocks reopened and all of the site was back on mains power.
I hope this helps explain the situation and please be assured the team did their utmost to resolve any issues.
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Thanks, Rowena. That explains a lot and shows how the outage affected the site and its occupants for only a very few hours👍🏻
We have had similar issues at home a few times and have only been without power for around half an hour each time the gennie was connected/disconnected. The power companies do their utmost to lessen inconvenience to people as they know some are vulnerable.
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Glad to see the power fault was sorted quickly and the site staff as usual did all they could to get the faulty generator sorted although it was out of their working hours
Thanks for getting that information we had generators keeping this site and the park with power for nearly a week last year when there was a power outage
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🤔😁