Campsites closing at the end of the 2024 season
Comments
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Reading posts on various Facebook groups, a lot of people seem to book a site and then ask - is there a pub in walking distance, where is the nearest bus stop, and increasingly - what night do food vans visit. Maybe these closing sites don’t suit them. But for us they would be perfect. I don’t like buses, don’t want to queue up to buy ready made food, nor sit in a pub.
I appreciate we all have different priorities and abilities. And we’re very grateful that our go-to site (Englethwaite Hall) is safe.
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We get quite a number of overseas visitors here in Cornwall - especially those from Germany. They are not simply coastal visitors but are often seen around the moorland too. For the most part they are not Club members and so club site prices are £15 extra for them. Northumberland will attract them too but a Club price of £36 a night for overseas visitors at a no facilities site like Nunnykirk is simply ridiculous. I bet they go elsewhere.
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We have stayed at Gwern-y-Bwlch several times as a non facility site with hardstanding amd hook up it is stunning. It does rain alot there though!! We prefer this type of site so for us it will mean fewer Club stays and more CL's. The closure of Baltic Wharf and Crystal Palace is also a great loss in key locations with no real alternatives.
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More non-facility sites rather than fewer and an obvious place to search for them when looking for a site might have been the way to keep my membership.
As it is I probably won't renew again as am fed up with paying through the nose for electricity and facilities I hardly use. I only chose a CAMC site now when I need to book a specific date in advance in a specific area.
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I would think that it would probably be a one off holiday so they just get on with it and go to places they want to see. As we are known to be Rip off Britain I'm pretty sure they were expecting it anyway.
The cost of our food is less than overseas so maybe that was a compensation
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There are alway a few foreign, and at least one, motorhome at Melrose whenever I've been there. Often on service pitches too. Usually German or Dutch. I've noticed a few Italian MH on club sites in the lakes and always stop to have a chat.
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Isn’t there some sort of reciprocal arrangement between CAMC and an overseas organisation which grants free membership to each other's clubs, or am I thinking of C&CC? 🤷🏻♂️
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TW, I had always thought that. I seem to remember a Club publication mentioning it years ago. I suppose it depends if European countries have similar organisations to the CMC in order to have an arrangement. I am pretty certain the Dutch do.
David
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I’m sure there used to be, as we have enjoyed holidays alongside Dutch, German, French tourists, particularly in Cornwall and Northumberland. We gave a road atlas to three Dutch fellas that were touring SW, and marked up all the Club Sites for them last time we stayed at Wincanton. A few years ago mind🤔
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So I probably didn’t imagine it. Wonder if it’s still a current arrangement?
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Yes, it was in print somewhere but it was in the dim and distant past.
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See the thread started by Ro about the 'improvements'.
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Loved Dockray meadow, fantastic location for the Western lakes, as for non facility sites bring more on, I have facilities on my caravan and unlike a lot of people I don’t have a problem using them.
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As members don’t we get to have a say in the decisions / running of the club
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Of course you do. That’s why you get to vote for the council members of your choice to make decisions on your behalf. You also have the opportunity of attending and/or raising points at the AGM.
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as for non facility sites bring more on
If only others, and especially those that use club sites, thought like you then the club would.
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But we never hear from the council members. A very truncated report of council meetings in the magazine. I would like to hear what council members have been arguing for. How can we decide how to vote for if we have no information from them during the year?
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Full details online as well.
Personally for me it makes no difference who runs the club and how they do it so long as it delivers what I want, and I would suspect for thousands of other club site users. I wonder how many on sites could actually name any council member?
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David
Just following on from a couple of points in your post. Yes access to site is awkward, but once you are there, there are lovely nearly all off road walking, especially to the village of Chiddingly, with its lovely old country pub. I have no means of knowing if this site makes a profit or loss, but I would be very surprised if it is one of the worse in the network.The peace and quietness was one of its main attractions.
The other issue coupled with the Camping and Caravanning Club this is yet another site lost in the South East.Once sites are lost, there lost, I would think locals must be concerned now if it will go for housing.
This Club has always stated it is for members, but I do not feel they have all our interests, when closing sites like these.
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Trouble is Fozzie is the walk to the pub you mention is two miles away. If you are fit and don't have any hip and knee problems perhaps that is just a gentle stroll but for many of us it would be a struggle so probably another reason for not going?
I saw on a Facebook Group that someone had started a petition to try and save the site. I think the Club would be more convinced by bums on seats?
I take what you mean about losing sites. A few years ago we stayed at Northbrook Farm and at the time the Club were in serious discussion with the local Council about upgrading the site. The Club had in mind creating a site with serviced hardstanding but no facility block. They also had storage on site. Initially the Council seemed to object to the size of the storage (obviously a storage facility helps a site survive). The original plan was to make the site slightly smaller with housing on the rest of the land. Then the Council decided that housing was more important than camping and we lost the whole site.
David
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I've been all the way through this thread and noted the various comments - and I really don't know what to think. As I have posted elsewhere, we are currently on the NYM site - a site we have been coming to for the last 10 years and always about the same time - well within a day or two anyway. We are pitched almost at the end of the one-way system, so when I came back from getting a paper this morning, I counted how many units were on site. There were 44 out of 90 available pitches occupied, 7 have left and 6 are coming in today. In previous years, at this time, the site has been full or nearly full. Interestingly, there are only about 6 motorhomes here.
Compare that with Sandringham, last month - 138 pitches and it was full or nearly full for the whole two weeks we were there. So that points towards facilities - or lack of them - being the key issue - but if that is the case then what's changed at NYM since last year and the years before? Both are in fairly remote locations, although Sandringham does have a bus stop outside.
Talking to a number of 'neighbours' on site - they are also surprised at the low level of occupancy. One had been coming here for 28 years, and another for 40. Both said they had never seen it like this.
The common grumbles are the comparatively high cost for a NF site - another is the introduction of centralised waste bins but more importantly is the attitude and demeanour of the new Wardens - so much so that both the above say they will never return again. The conspiracy theorist in me is asking whether this is deliberate to reduce occupancy over time and thereby bring about the site's demise
I did wonder if the weather was a factor - but the forecast (BBC) for both sites (this month and last month) were almost identical in their inaccuracy and the initial poor forecast turned out to be anything but - in both cases.
Frankly, I'm a bit baffled.
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