Service stations
Last night travelling home we went in to Cambridge services which has recently had a complete parking space revamp with a new 130 bay lorry park. All the lorry spaces were full and lorries in the bus spaces and all the approx 8 caravan spaces were full of artic lorries as well as lorries parked on the roadways.. So we had to travel on and decided not to stop. I know this is becoming a regular situation at Cambridge services. How is it that there are so few caravan spaces which even when they are not full of lorries have commercial vans often with trailers? We haven't reached the holiday peak yet.
I know we have facilities in our vans that we can stop in a lay-by and use but is there no way these spaces can be protected for caravans?
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Comments
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You said it was “last night.” Caravanners can go to a campsite overnight but HGV drivers cannot, and they are obliged to stop when their driving hours are up.
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I'm not sure why you think caravans are worthy of having protected spaces as, annoying as it might be for caravanners and motorhomers, the HGVs have restrictions on their movement as ET outlined while we LV users have complete freedom of choice as to when and how far we travel. It is surely our call to make sure we stop in other suitable places when circumstances such as you describe arise.
Did you take the matter up with the Services manager? There are threads on the CT forum concerning this and similar issues but, at the end of the day, there’s not much can be done about it.
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I don’t think it is true there is not much that can be done about it. I understand both the OP post and the two subsequent posts. An evening or night stop is different from during the day. If you are on a longish motorway journey your natural stopping places are the service stations and we are all encouraged, quite rightly, not to drive whilst tired. I do believe much better signage would help in some cases, it is frequently unclear where caravans and motorhomes should park. I also think more could be done to prevent cars being parked in caravan/Motorhome bays. A recent stop we made two of the not many bays were being used by a car in the middle of each bay, effectively preventing either caravan or Motorhome parking. We were all right as we were able to park behind another Motorhome. Incidentally, if parked behind a van that moves, we always move forward so someone can park behind us.
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"I don’t think it is true there is not much that can be done about it"
I stand by my earlier statement because, in practical terms there is not much at all to be done about it. You’ll have seen from forum threads that approaches have been made to the operators of Service Areas and achieved nothing more than words so, in reality, "there’s not much can be done about it".
As long as HGVs are carrying goods to keep the nation running in terms of food and other essentials, and as long as the law restricts their movements, they will by the very nature of their usage take priority whether we like it or not.
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