So what did the Club ever do for Motorcaravanners?

I have a sense of déjà vu…

Stuart, you are forgetting one thing - this is the Caravan and Motorhome Club. What you suggest would be great for a motorhome club to provide but you are proposing to use this club's funds to create a whole raft of sites just for motorhomers and you would exclude the majority of members - caravanners - from these motorhome nightstops. 

Let's not even get into the nuts and bolts of land acquisition, funds, need etc etc but, whether there is a genuine need for these 'aires' in this country or not, your proposal plainly isn’t fair to the majority of members. 

do not condem or condon your suggestions, and even if the CAMC did embark on such an adventurous programme, i will probably be pushing up daises before it came to fruition, but i think some of your logic may be a little bit flawed.

as a caravanner not interested in Aires type facilities, but not sure i can see why the club would be keen to invest in such facilities. Sure during peak seasons when most sites are full they may be of some use, but what about all those long out of season periods when sites have pitches available, why would you encourage people to pitch up for £5 per night when you can charge them £15 on a multi purpose site, where, even if you only have 25pct occupancy you still have to provide full facilities. 

I think a network of CAMC Motorhome Nightstops would compliment the network of Club Sites and serve to promote them too - for example each Night Halt could easily display advertising material about nearby Club Sites.

but why would Mh'ers be interested in multi purpose sites if they have all that they need on the Aires type facilities for a fraction of the cost and retain the ability of freedom of movement that MH's seem to want.

If we want to discourage free loading wild campers, as I am told is the case in France, then great, but as TW has pointed out, the logistics of setting up these facilities, with a danger that they might detract users from the core business could be very risky, but if you look at an alternative, it may just free up more pitches on the multi purpose site during peak periods for caravanners in particular  wanting to stay for say 1 or 2 weeks in 1 place.

I guess on this i am probaly sitting on the fence, and will probably be sitting here for a long time yet. 

Good luck with this going forward

I don't follow your seperation of motor caravans from trailer caravans. They are both used in the same manner, as are the "campervans" that the Club was so recently telling us we were "crazy" for.

A network of overnight halts supported, if not actually run, by the Club is a very good idea but should be engineered to cater for all caravanners whether the engine is in the caravan or seperate.

There was such a network of "night halts" that I remember but I can't recall when it was discontinued as a Club supported concept. There was one at Tebay Services M6 northbound to the left of the entrance slip road, between the recently closed commercial site and the main motorway carriageway.  Roads, etc are still there.

Personally I don't think it to be a viable proposition for the CC and hence for the majority of club members. 

I see a scarcity of entrepreneurs setting up such facilities other than as an adjunct to existing business or under used facility such as P&Rs or car parks perhaps outside peak hours

I am quite happy with what they provide 

I always look upon the CL, CS type of site provision as UK Aire type stops. Not as cheap as on Continent (allegedly) but often far nicer. The old argument about not being sited in towns doesn’t wash with us. No such thing as MH unfriendly towns, just buyers who bought an inconvenient size MH for what they want to do........

And as caravanners, we didn’t need toilet blocks then, and still don’t now. 

Members who have never toured abroad will have had no experience of  Aires de Camping Car, as the French call them, but take it from me there are a huge number of them and they are very popular.  Likewise caravanners (“tuggers”) will not have had the experience either because trailer caravans are not allowed to use them.  There are relatively few in UK and this is at leats partly due to the negative influence of caravan site proprietors who don’t want what they see as competition (including perhaps CAMC) and local authorities who don’t see any value in the idea and worry about Travellers.

CAMC has developed many services which only small sections of Members use so I reject the idea that nothing can be developed which doesn’t serve the trailer caravanners among Members is blinkered and selfish.  CAMC has now got lots of motorhomers as members and it’s about time the Club faced up to serving them properly as well.

The trouble is, Stuart, your idea purports vast financial investment to provide numerous night halts across the country for the exclusive benefit of motorhomers. That's very different from providing MHSPs, play areas or dog walks, all of which encourage people to visit mainstream club sites.

I'm not disputing a possible need for aire type facilities, although I don't personally feel the need, but my gripe is the inappropriateness of this club entering such a huge undertaking which will exclude the majority of members. Those same members excluded from the night halts will be paying for them via their club fees. That’s inequality at its worst.

PS. Have you looked up the previous threads where this had been debated?

Your argument is fundermentally  flawed in that as said if it would be financially viable then there would already be the type of motor caravan stop over you see on the continent   ,but looking at the majority of cc or ccc sites motor caravans are in the uk used much as caravans are and tend to stay put once on site,

and "over there" how many UK reg motor caravans do you see useing aires compared to others of other countries ,hence the proliferation of aires 

Most Aires on the continent have been set up by the local communities, even creating them where Municipal Campsites are close by, sometimes even putting them on the front of the site. What you are asking for is for Aires to be created and subsidised by members who will be excluded from using them. Not going to happen.

Nothing to stop any other organisation or Town/city councils from creating them. I certainly feel that there is a need for them in certain parts of the UK, for example the Scotland 500 is now inundated with Motorhomes that tend to wild camp (not all of them I know before anyone tries to correct me) and the Scottish Govt may well find that as tourism is one of their biggest income earners that they embark on these type of facilities. The CAMC? No way.