I am a ranger in the Scottish highlands

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I have seen many times cars parked in a car park where a couple will get some chairs out of their car boot and sit and look at the view with maybe a copper or picnic. And I am sure we have all seen plenty of rubbish left behind by people with cars, but I have never seen signs banning cars from car parks.
But the first time someone in a motorhome gets chairs out to do the same thing, then we all get banned,
And when ever there has been a motorhome in a car park, any rubbish in the car park, for some strange reason must have been left by the people in the motorhome, so again we all get banned from the car park.
Can anyone explain why this is ?

I think a lot of it is pure jealousy and envy. How many times have we seen articles or threads on forums outside the motorhome community with comments about "Getting the view or staying the night for free"? Freeloader is another one often used. Brits cant stand to think someone is getting something for nothing or enjoying a bit of freedom. Except as we all know its not free, its feckin expensive! :D Apart from when I had a boat I cant think of anything Ive chucked more money at. We (personally) spend a fair bit when away in the van also.
 
Wish you could get your message out to the casual day trippers Gregor, the families that rock up to your beauty spots in the overloaded car, kids / dogs, food, lots of fast food, ... they have a lovely day, and when they leave, ... fast food containers, drink cans, bottles, tops, dog sh**t, soiled nappies ... that we on this forum usually pick up, because we are aware of the code of conduct, and have waste bags, rubbish storage, toilet storage, built into our vans ... please get our message out to your managers, local councilors, MP's, that motorhomers and campervanners, enjoy and maintain our countryside, because we've often worked all our lives to enjoy it ... 🙂

Where we are now (Flamborough head) its heartbreaking to see the mess day trippers leave. We have been here five weeks now and every weekend all the hotspot car parks and beauty spots are just left littered with rubbish. Yesterday the lady who owns the CL we have been staying on spent an entire day with a hi vis jacket on picking up rubbish all along the lighthouse road. All of the sea view car parks around Flamborough head are strictly no wild camping yet they are just trashed every week by morons who simply cant be arsed to pick up their litter and even put it in the bins which are provided let alone take it home yet we who go out of our way to even pick up their £$%^ are banned. It makes my blood boil.
 
Just googled 'mess left by motorhomes uk' and there was virtually nothing including in 'Images' so tried 'mess left by campervans' and same result 🤷‍♂️

If you want articles about 'abandoned tents and litter'............well take your pick!
 
We’ve just picked up some of the mess left here at the parking near the Battery Bar on the west shore of Lough Neagh. There were only 3 motorhomes here when we arrived early yesterday afternoon, but it was busy with day trippers who left a right mess, mostly fast food cartons and wrapping which must have been bought a fair distance away.

What a difference today, we’re the only ones here apart from Eel fishermen!
 
Was Gregors Post an invite for a discussion or just him telling us we have no right to park overnight anywhere in Scotland which of course is garbage because you can I believe park legally anywhere within 15 yards of a road.

Not quite so. You can indeed drive 15 yards of a road for the purposes of parking. This does not, however, grant you any legal right to actually park. Given that most (if not all) of the land will be owned by someone (and cetainly most of the machair in OH is crofting land), you do not have a legal right to park on it. So important to be accurate, don't you think? Especially when there are so many people who don't necessarily have "our" ethos of appropriate "wild" camping techniques, and may be seeking advice from the likes of this forum.
 
That's just put this back on for Gregor or the scottish rangers...
wild-camping.jpg
 
I am a Ranger on Holliday in Cornwall and to be honest I’m really happy we won our 55th league championship this year but I thought Steven Gerard had more important stuff to do than get involved in camping issues. Come on the Rangers. I could sing a song that Trev likes bug I’ll get the jail.😂😜
GIRUY
 
i am here in my personal capacity and as a van user myself. (I am actually a ranger representing three groups amongst other jobs and unpaid volunteering because I care about our planet 🌍).
Not quite sure what you mean by a ranger representing three groups ?
You also say you are here in a personal capacity .
Bit confused
But you've come on here without doing any research at all . It would not have taken you 5 minutes to find out where the people on here stand
I'm sure you can see it is a bit like having a Jehovah's witness at our door
(no apologies if you are a Jehovah's)
 
Im not a seasoned motorhomer yet, thats exactly why i joined this group ! We have absolutely no intention of camping where we are not supposed to , nor leaving any mess behind. We are touring Scotland in August and booked onto 3 sites , but will be wild camping for 3 nights inbetween each site, with the help and wisdom of the many members of this wonderful group.
 
Im not a seasoned motorhomer yet, thats exactly why i joined this group ! We have absolutely no intention of camping where we are not supposed to , nor leaving any mess behind. We are touring Scotland in August and booked onto 3 sites , but will be wild camping for 3 nights inbetween each site, with the help and wisdom of the many members of this wonderful group.
It would be very beneficial for you to join as a full member and get all the benefits and best of all access to the poi files which offer some excellent places to stop for the night.
 
We’ve just picked up some of the mess left here at the parking near the Battery Bar on the west shore of Lough Neagh. There were only 3 motorhomes here when we arrived early yesterday afternoon, but it was busy with day trippers who left a right mess, mostly fast food cartons and wrapping which must have been bought a fair distance away.

What a difference today, we’re the only ones here apart from Eel fishermen!
Have you been to the massereene gardens in Antrim close to the roundabout on the Randelstown road.
mass a.png
mass b.png
mass c.png
mass d.png
 
Where we are now (Flamborough head) its heartbreaking to see the mess day trippers leave. We have been here five weeks now and every weekend all the hotspot car parks and beauty spots are just left littered with rubbish. Yesterday the lady who owns the CL we have been staying on spent an entire day with a hi vis jacket on picking up rubbish all along the lighthouse road. All of the sea view car parks around Flamborough head are strictly no wild camping yet they are just trashed every week by morons who simply cant be arsed to pick up their litter and even put it in the bins which are provided let alone take it home yet we who go out of our way to even pick up their £$%^ are banned. It makes my blood boil.
There are probably hundreds if not thousands of similar situations all over the U.K. What I don’t get is the penny never drops for those people. We were at Port Logan in Galloway yesterday and there was a sign which stated. DON‘T SPOIL THE ENVIORMENT, STAY THE DAY BUT DON’T SPEND THE NIGHT. What the hell do they mean by such a sign, how does someone sleeping in a van in a rural carpark spoil the environment. But sadly the type of person who puts out rubbish like that probably has clout.
 
There are probably hundreds if not thousands of similar situations all over the U.K. What I don’t get is the penny never drops for those people. We were at Port Logan in Galloway yesterday and there was a sign which stated. DON‘T SPOIL THE ENVIORMENT, STAY THE DAY BUT DON’T SPEND THE NIGHT. What the hell do they mean by such a sign, how does someone sleeping in a van in a rural carpark spoil the environment. But sadly the type of person who puts out rubbish like that probably has clout.
People dumping rubbish , don't you just hate them leaving signs all over the place..... best you place them in the correct recycling receptacle :LOL:
 
I’ve posted this before, but again for your benefit Gregor. If those who resort to prejudice and lazily blame all motorhomers for the transgressions of day trippers and hirers actually spent the time making careful observations they would probably be better informed…

(Extract from a letter to a Councillor who had received complaints about litter in a car park heavily used by cars but rarely by motorhomes, someone had seen a motorhome there: this led to all motorhomes being banned)

A subject that probably annoys responsible motorhome owners more than locals...LITTER. Whoever wants to spend a night in a carpark that is full of litter...for a night it’s our garden. Many motorhomers, including myself often clear up other people’s litter from carparks where we stay, in fact we have a groups called the Motorhome Wombles, and Motorhomes and Campervans Against Litter.

Nearly all the litter comes from people in the far more numerous cars. Yet strangely no-one bans cars from car parks. Sadly people are so prejudiced, they see a motorhome in a car park, they see rubbish and bingo they conflate the two and come over self-righteous. People in cars unlike motorhomers have nowhere to store their rubbish. Many simply don’t care, and others use absence of a bin as an excuse to throw rubbish out of the window. We have our own bags and bins that we can empty when we find a proper place.

Two recent experiences.

Small viewpoint car park near Earby, Lancs.
Arrive before lunch, clear up a considerable amount of litter including things like cans, wrappers, packaging for a new iPhone and glue sniffers bong (or something worse). Several cars arrive for the view and lunch, no one gets out yet when they go there’s a new collection of fast food containers, sandwich wrappers and cans...yet the carpark has two bins! Clear it up again. Go for a walk, come back, it’s full of rubbish again...we were the only van there all day, and I knew that if any local saw rubbish we would be the ones getting the blame.

Taf Fechan Forest car park, Brecons. Clean when we arrived. Busy August weekend. 3 motorhomes there, us, a German couple and some East Europeans, nothing put outside, no rubbish deposited. Many dozens of cars came and left. Litter and bags of picnic waste dumped everywhere. Romanians with tents on the verge. People lighting fires (in a Forest!!!) one of which I had to later to put out. Disposable barbeques, which people abandoned without extinguishing. People disappearing into the woods with camping equipment. I had to have sharp words with a couple who planned ‘leaving their tent for others’. Sunday afternoon quiet again, just about to get out the litter-picker when a young guy and his son get out a bin bag and start to clear up the mess. Congratulating him I discover he’s Russian “in Russia we always clear up everybody’s mess after a weekend in the forest...it’s traditional”...we could learn something from the Russians after all!

Powys is very welcoming but if this continues, who do you think will be banned...cars? Of course there are bad eggs in every basket, but you know the saying...find a crime, search for the guilty, punish the innocent...it’s easier that way. It’s so infuriating...especially to find the same happening in my own neck of the woods.

Some car park owners who let motorhomes stay overnight say they appreciate having us there because they have less vandalism and bad behaviour when there’s eyes there to see what’s going on.

Litterers should be dealt with as litterers who ever they are, there are ample laws for this. Defining and punishing groups according to the transgressions of a minority has in law been illegal since the 19th Century. Try banning all cars from roads because a few speed and imagine the reaction you would get!
 
I’ve posted this before, but again for your benefit Gregor. If those who resort to prejudice and lazily blame all motorhomers for the transgressions of day trippers and hirers actually spent the time making careful observations they would probably be better informed…

(Extract from a letter to a Councillor who had received complaints about litter in a car park heavily used by cars but rarely by motorhomes, someone had seen a motorhome there: this led to all motorhomes being banned)

A subject that probably annoys responsible motorhome owners more than locals...LITTER. Whoever wants to spend a night in a carpark that is full of litter...for a night it’s our garden. Many motorhomers, including myself often clear up other people’s litter from carparks where we stay, in fact we have a groups called the Motorhome Wombles, and Motorhomes and Campervans Against Litter.

Nearly all the litter comes from people in the far more numerous cars. Yet strangely no-one bans cars from car parks. Sadly people are so prejudiced, they see a motorhome in a car park, they see rubbish and bingo they conflate the two and come over self-righteous. People in cars unlike motorhomers have nowhere to store their rubbish. Many simply don’t care, and others use absence of a bin as an excuse to throw rubbish out of the window. We have our own bags and bins that we can empty when we find a proper place.

Two recent experiences.

Small viewpoint car park near Earby, Lancs.
Arrive before lunch, clear up a considerable amount of litter including things like cans, wrappers, packaging for a new iPhone and glue sniffers bong (or something worse). Several cars arrive for the view and lunch, no one gets out yet when they go there’s a new collection of fast food containers, sandwich wrappers and cans...yet the carpark has two bins! Clear it up again. Go for a walk, come back, it’s full of rubbish again...we were the only van there all day, and I knew that if any local saw rubbish we would be the ones getting the blame.

Taf Fechan Forest car park, Brecons. Clean when we arrived. Busy August weekend. 3 motorhomes there, us, a German couple and some East Europeans, nothing put outside, no rubbish deposited. Many dozens of cars came and left. Litter and bags of picnic waste dumped everywhere. Romanians with tents on the verge. People lighting fires (in a Forest!!!) one of which I had to later to put out. Disposable barbeques, which people abandoned without extinguishing. People disappearing into the woods with camping equipment. I had to have sharp words with a couple who planned ‘leaving their tent for others’. Sunday afternoon quiet again, just about to get out the litter-picker when a young guy and his son get out a bin bag and start to clear up the mess. Congratulating him I discover he’s Russian “in Russia we always clear up everybody’s mess after a weekend in the forest...it’s traditional”...we could learn something from the Russians after all!

Powys is very welcoming but if this continues, who do you think will be banned...cars? Of course there are bad eggs in every basket, but you know the saying...find a crime, search for the guilty, punish the innocent...it’s easier that way. It’s so infuriating...especially to find the same happening in my own neck of the woods.

Some car park owners who let motorhomes stay overnight say they appreciate having us there because they have less vandalism and bad behaviour when there’s eyes there to see what’s going on.

Litterers should be dealt with as litterers who ever they are, there are ample laws for this. Defining and punishing groups according to the transgressions of a minority has in law been illegal since the 19th Century. Try banning all cars from roads because a few speed and imagine the reaction you would get!
Totally agree Ian.
 
I am also in agreement with everything barge wrote but in fairness to Gregor he has not once mentioned litter, only referenced the Access Code

Common belief of the name origin/meaning of Gregor is 'watchful', very apt for a ranger
 
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