Overnight parking in Northumberland

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😉 😎

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?

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"

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.

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!

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.

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. 

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.

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. 

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.