CL site costs

QFour

QFour

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Seems like some are now offering toilets and showers along with an increase in price. We are going to Seahouses in January and normally stop at Helmsley on the way up. This has now been closed thanks to some so we looked for a CL for a couple of nights on the way and a night on the way back but £90 with a £30 deposit required when booking they have to be having a laugh. So looks like some CLs are putting in toilets, showers, drainage for grey waste and hard standing and increasing prices accordingly. We found a place to stay on route at £5 a night so looks like we will have somewhere else to explore. So we have now downloaded the CAMC list of CLs without facilities and EHU which will mean we can stay away longer. It would be nice if you had the choice of EHU or some form of meter then you could decide how you want to spend your money. Some CLs are now charging £25+ for a night and the caravan people are paying it as its cheaper than CAMC sites.
 
Where have you been for the last 10+ years? The CAMC (and before them CC) have been pushing CL's to have all 'mod cons' for a long time, add in the explosion in ownership of motorhomes over the last few years and it's a 'sellers market'. Way things are going those small cheap CL's will soon become a distant memory.
 
On this years mammoth UK tour (5 months in total) we exclusively sought out the no frills CL sites in the middle of nowhere, mainly in Devon and Cornwall. Thankfully there are still a few. Heres the thing though, they just werent popular. Early to mid summer the CL sites with all the frills were full but we were often on our own on no frills CLs that were between £5-£10 a night. The only thing I can think is maybe a lot of newbies are addicted to hookup or it could be that the ones we found were down the customary narrow lane goat track so my mirrors ended up with various bits of hedgerow and God knows what else stuck in them and perhaps that puts off the shiny van brigade or the terminally terrified. This was a deliberate ploy though as we just use the bike once parked up for a few days or a week.

I tried to leave some good reviews on most of them to encourage others as I would hate to see these traditional lovely basic CL sites go.

No motorhome really between April and September needs any of this stuff like showers, toilets and Electricity. Thats what proper sites are for IMO.
 
CL/CS owners have to make a decision what facilities to provide and these days many people will not consider a site without EHU/ shower / toilets so owners install these facilities and set the price to recover their costs.

The great thing about MoHos is that we have the choice about where we stay and how much we will pay for it.
Deciding to stay on a field with a tap and an elsan point is a valid choice, but so is insisting on hard standing with water & grey waste on each pitch.

It is a matter of personal taste.

We enjoy both extremes, the most important factor for us is the location.
I've just looked at this years' log book (spreadsheet actually)

We have mainly wild camped or used pub car parks.
Off peak we used some commercial sites with everything including an indoor swimming pool, (£10 & £15 pn).
We have only had one night on a CL/CS. It cost £20 and it wasn't that great.
 
There`s a CL quite close to us and they are now charging £30 per night / £200 if you book 7 nights and there`s talk of them putting it up to £35 per night with no reduction for long stays because of the cost of electric.

It`s a field behind their house so it`s on grass, 6amp EHU, water tap, you lift the manhole cover to empty the cassette and you are underneath power lines.

We drive past it regular so i always slow down then we can look up the drive to the field at the rear, 9/10 it`s full.

Once basic CL`s hit £15 per night we stopped using them because IMHO they are taking the piss 🤬
 
r4dent said:
CL/CS owners have to make a decision what facilities to provide and these days many people will not consider a site without EHU/ shower / toilets so owners install these facilities and set the price to recover their costs.

The great thing about MoHos is that we have the choice about where we stay and how much we will pay for it.
Deciding to stay on a field with a tap and an elsan point is a valid choice, but so is insisting on hard standing with water & grey waste on each pitch.

It is a matter of personal taste.

We enjoy both extremes, the most important factor for us is the location.
I've just looked at this years' log book (spreadsheet actually)

We have mainly wild camped or used pub car parks.
Off peak we used some commercial sites with everything including an indoor swimming pool, (£10 & £15 pn).
We have only had one night on a CL/CS. It cost £20 and it wasn't that great.
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Can you download the spreadsheet, or did you write it yourself?
 
When we stayed on one of our favourite CL sites in the Lakes in Rusland at the end of this years tour once again we were the only ones on it. By then of course we were on hookup. £18 a night which I think now with the price of electric is reasonable. The other one we stayed on near Ullswater was £15 a night with electric which is positively a bargain now. Again, only us and the odd other van on it.

However the newly reopened C&MC site at Braithwaite fold just outside Bowness on Windermere was absolutely stacked all the time we were there. £30-£40 a night apparently and talking to the warden it was booked solid, in October!!! It looked pretty grim to me packed full of vans and next to a busy road with no real views to speak of. I dont get it. Long may it continue though.
 
Fazerloz said:
The nearest CL to me is listed at £6pn in Kirkheaton and you will struggle to find a CL with either a better view or food. No surprise Channa chose to spend quite a few of his last days there.
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This is one of my favourites. Atlantic View CL in Cornwall (near Bude). Its just a massive field, services are awful and difficult to get to but there is just so much space and a 360 degree view. I think it was £8 in the summer. We found them as low as £5 though.

 
barryd said:
This is one of my favourites. Atlantic View CL in Cornwall (near Bude). Its just a massive field, services are awful and difficult to get to but there is just so much space and a 360 degree view. I think it was £8 in the summer. We found them as low as £5 though.re last year.
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Agree it's a super place with good walks around. The CDP is quite basic though. When we were there the whole area was locked down, not because of Covid, but Amazon were filming 'Mammals'. We had to go through security to reach the site but it was all very amicable.

Like many of these types of CLs an elderly lady was running the site. I hope we don't start to lose such places as and when these lovely people pass on.
 
number14 said:
Agree it's a super place with good walks around. The CDP is quite basic though. When we were there the whole area was locked down, not because of Covid, but Amazon were filming 'Mammals'. We had to go through security to reach the site but it was all very amicable.

Like many of these types of CLs an elderly lady was running the site. I hope we don't start to lose such places as and when these lovely people pass on.
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Yes I agree, a lot of them tend to be run by older retired folk. On the plus side I suppose the maintenance and costs involved for a basic CL wont be much. Whether a younger relative would be bothered with it all though, who knows.
 
There was a lovely one on Bodmin Moor. Huge field run by elderly lady with various elderly animals roaming about looking contented.
Apart, that is, from the duck that waddled all the way from the farm to the far end of the 6 acre field to quack at us indignantly and then waddle back!
£3.50 a night if I remember right. Them was the days!
 
our CL has been at the same price for many years, however from next season we have to increase the price to £15 a night to cover costs it is still half the price or less than any other CL in the area. We do have water, WC, Dump tank and an outdoor shower all with no extra charge. So still a good deal all round.
 
wildman said:
our CL has been at the same price for many years, however from next season we have to increase the price to £15 a night to cover costs it is still half the price or less than any other CL in the area. We do have water, WC, Dump tank and an outdoor shower all with no extra charge. So still a good deal all round.
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Thanks £15 all in is fine !
We may go that way next year
 
I actually stopped on a cl outside Withernsea last week for a night and was talking to the owner, he told me the standing charge for electric had increased to £7.50 per day. I was the first person on there for almost 2 weeks
 
Nabsim said:
I actually stopped on a cl outside Withernsea last week for a night and was talking to the owner, he told me the standing charge for electric had increased to £7.50 per day. I was the first person on there for almost 2 weeks
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Was that just for the CL or his electric in general?
 
barryd said:
Was that just for the CL or his electric in general?
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Just the cl, the site was remote from anything else, no living quarters or reception etc there. Was just the EHU points, elsan, a shower and toilet plus a toilet then and outside wash up area and tap.
 
Nabsim said:
Just the cl, the site was remote from anything else, no living quarters or reception etc there. Was just the EHU points, elsan, a shower and toilet plus a toilet then and outside wash up area and tap.
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Sounds perfect ....one of our fave areas and some lovely 'wild' spots over there if you look carefully ;-)
 
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