Arrival times

"I am not sure why with a few exceptions, like the earlier cross channel ferry quoted, anyone should ever be more that 5 mins early."

Then again, why would the club bend the rules for a very infrequent user, staying for just 1 night, but not for regular users staying, say, for a week?

maybe if you could book pitch type then members would not arrive early just to bag a hardstanding

Me coming from a family of ten and being the " Black Sheep " father being a RSM in the Leic's Tigers Regiment, I was totaly pixxed off with rules through my youth, as we get older and mature we come to accept there is generally a very good reason for rules. I now enjoy the peace, quiet and cleanliness generally found on CMC sites and do my best to abide by these rules. For those that disagree why not go to meetings, change the rules but IMO don't just moan and break them.

To suggest " we can do this, we can do that on other sites " go ahead do it ( on other sites )!!

Happy caravanning.

Depends why they arrive early. If it were permitted I would wish to arrive just before 11am. Not to get hard standing which I have not failed to get in the last 200 site visits (or thereabouts), but because I am ready to leave a site and move on easily by 8.30am or earlier and usually aim for 2 or 2.5 hour run to next site. So sometimes I might wait until 10.30 before leaving if only a 90 min run

I'm getting a bit tired of the arguments about arrival/departure times. It is clear that arrival shouldn't be before x o'clock and departures no later than y o'clock. So we abide by those (sensible) rules. End of. It might be a bit inconvenient on an odd occasion but generally it works okay so let's get on with it and stop winging! Just saying.

OK,  head above the parapet time. Last month, middle of February, we'd booked a few nights at a club site in the Cotswolds. It takes us about an hour and a half to get there. As it's about as low as low season gets, I rang to ask if we could arrive, maybe half an hour before midday. Nothing to do with "bagging the best pitch", simply wanting to make the most of a short break. Wardens says "yes" - that's great for us and we arrive, as asked at 11:30. If the warden had said "no" we'd have just accepted it and arrived at 12. But that extra half an hour made all the difference to the first day of our break.

Wouldn't dream of doing it out of low season or asking to arrive hours early mind you and certainly not just turning up without having asked first. 

That's the point Dave that you father grasped and accepted.

Your father knew there were certain rules to this event and as he didn't want to 'conform' to those rules he didn't go. His choice - simple.

You don't like the rules on club sites and do not want to conform to them (arrive three hours early and all that) so why come to a club site in the first place? Why expect the rules to be altered in your favour? You have been a member a long time I seem to recall, 20+ years?, you should know the form by now so why return? Go to where the rules suit you?

I think that is a sensible approach M, there is warden's discretion and long may that continue but just to arrive early without warning and expect to be let in is completelty something else.

I don't generally have a problem with sensible rules, those that are obviously in place so that they help everyone, keep something flowing well and safely. But I happen to think that blind obedience to something just for the sake of it does not do any one or any society good. We are only debating petty comings and goings on staid, orderly holiday parks, where, let's face it, an exciting moment is if someone's child pedals the wrong way round the roadway. But it doesn't mean that on an empty site, in the middle of Winter, arriving early and being able to pitch up is a crime. It's sensible management of a resource by an empowered employee! 

Our world is a much better place for more people because a few brave individuals and groups decided to challenge tablets of stone.

Our world is a much better place for more people because a few brave individuals and groups decided to challenge tablets of stone.

I am not Christian. Wonder how many in UK are?