Attitude to 'No Overnight' Signs

Older Gurna

Guest
Just wondered what the consensus was on parking up when see-ing a 'No Overnight Parking' sign?
Not talking 'bout those with quoted by-laws & TRO's, just the usual B/S ones We see all the time.
I'm guessing there's 2 camps (pun!!)....Those who ignore 'em as they impinge on our freedom & those who abide 'cos of an awareness of public perception re. Motorhomers...........
Discuss?............
 
Im still quite new to all this and i would abide by all signs being an honest person....:lol-053: but i guess the more practice i get the more ill know which ones to ignore
 
do a search there are loads of threads on it .
i ignore them .
 
As responsible wildcampers we all respect these signs put up by responsible Local Councillors.

Nuff said.
 
I just ignore the signs. They are only advisory anyway.

A sign exhorting you to stay at some rip-off campsite is advisory too, but would you necessarily follow the advice?
 
It depends on the possible/ probable consequences. Each spot is different & must be assessed as you find it.

SWMBO gets nervous if she sees a sign, sometimes I don't point them out, sometimes neither of us see them until we leave, sometimes we are tired enough to not give a damn. Often places with signs are places like car parks, where I might not want to stop anyway. I have been known to park directly in front of them so no-one else knows the sign is there.
 
I don't do so many long journey's these days but in the past when I used to head down to Torquay on a Friday night after a day's work If I was tired and saw a suitable place to get an hours kip I didn't care whether there were signs or not , no copper in his right mind would send a tired driver on his /her way , in fact one night a copper pulled up had a chat a got a flask of coffee out, another year the coppers were directing cars into layby's /service area's and handing out hot drinks and leaflets, they had a tiredness kills campaign on at the time
 
Just wondered if anyone has been forcibly removed from a no overnight spot. I.e. Has it led to the police being involved and insisting that you leave?
 
Firefox said:
I just ignore the signs. They are only advisory anyway.

A sign exhorting you to stay at some rip-off campsite is advisory too, but would you necessarily follow the advice?
Click to expand...

No M8....even when Ol'Bill 'advises' moving to a named site...
Having said that tho'...Last w/e...on a campsite....This w/e....on a campsite...(Thanks tho'!!!)....Maybe I'm just getting too old for all the 'interaction'!!!

Smaug:- Spot on re. the O/H!!
 
NeilyG said:
Just wondered if anyone has been forcibly removed from a no overnight spot. I.e. Has it led to the police being involved and insisting that you leave?
Click to expand...

They can't insist....they just start the usual interminable stupid questions!! eg. 'Is this Your Van sir?'.....'Is this Your Wife?' (Seriously!!! Norfolk's finest!!)...'Is this a number or a letter?' (on number plate...) Prob. hoping You'll give in & re-locate to the 'suggested' camp-site!!
 
NeilyG said:
Just wondered if anyone has been forcibly removed from a no overnight spot. I.e. Has it led to the police being involved and insisting that you leave?
Click to expand...

Not really, but they did advise me once that I would be better off in the next layby as it was set back further off the road with trees/hedge between, mind you I suppose that the second layby might have been off their patch but I was glad of the advice, went for a quick hours kip around 10pm and woke up in daylight next morning.
 
Older Gurna said:
They can't insist....they just start the usual interminable stupid questions!! eg. 'Is this Your Van sir?'.....'Is this Your Wife?' (Seriously!!! Norfolk's finest!!)...'Is this a number or a letter?' (on number plate...) Prob. hoping You'll give in & re-locate to the 'suggested' camp-site!!
Click to expand...

If you are ever over near Gt Yarmouth / Caister don't bother roughing it head here Motor Homes this is what we need more of, staff are real friendly and helpfull
 
You lot don't know when you are well off.

Just for your amusement

Welcome to wild-camping Argentinian-style
The softies back home go on about all the trials and tribulations suffered at the hands of Australian officialdom and Caravan park owners, but here is a whole different ballgame.

Second night out from Buenos Aires - wild camping in a nice stand of Australian Eucalyptus trees well off the main road - had just settled into bed when there was a blinding light outside and a blip on the siren and shouting - in Spanish of course. Obviously a police car so cracked the side door and poked my head out to see a rambo wannabe, but obviously suffering a nervous breakdown, dancing and prancing from one side of a tree to the other, shouting his head off and waving a riot gun - stockless shotgun - all around the place while his offsider manned the 8" searchlight back at the car - while clutching a revolver and at least pointing it at the ground.

If it hadn't been to stupidly hilarious it would have been quite serious.


Anyway, I swung straight in to my usual cranky old grumpy barstard routine - "what do you think you are doing, We were asleep, why do you wake us up for nothing Put the gun down, turn off the light etc etc etc"
The idiot with the shotgun stepped back a couple of paces and the bloke at the car switched to limited English "out, out, show hands etc etc" so I shouted even louder "no chance - not coming out until you get rid of the guns and put the light out - and anybloody way, I've only got socks on and my pyjamas and you can see I have nothing in my hands" and slid the door closed a bit for emphasis.

Anyway, after a couple of minutes of total stalemate and lots of mutually incomprehensible shouting, the keystone kops finally realised they weren't going to get anywhere until they acted a bit more normally and DID put their guns in the car - or at least out of sight - and did swing the spotlight away.

On a roll, I said "not proper policemen - no uniforms!!" Boss man said "I boss, no need uniform" and rambo grabbed the cuffs of his pants and yanked upwards so hard I thought he was going to lift his feet off the ground "This IS uniform!!!!

Then "passaport, passaport" so I countered "show ID first or no passport" so rambo nearly ripped his pocket off in his eagerness to get his ID card out and handed it over so I carefully inspected it before saying OK, one moment" while I shut the door fully to dig out my passports and handed them over.

Then the usual Ahhhh, Australian ----- kangaroooo.
Sigh!!! Si, si, kangarooooo, si

Then came the attempts to justify their antics -" locals rang up, locals are bad people who will rob you.."
What the!!! Why then would they call the police BEFORE robbing and murdering us???
Then - "we were worried about your safety and wanted to tell you to go into town and stay at the service centre."
What the!!! The only danger were were facing was from rambo and his shotgun. Pull the other leg why don't you. I should add that 10' in front of their blazing high beams and driving lights was a battered Iveco van with foreign plates with the GB and EuroZone symbol clearly visible

Round and round in circles - broken finally by handshakes all-round and they drove off into the night. Betty all the time in bed wondering what troubles I would get her into this time..

Anyway, we did decide that they might send some locals around to hassle us if we stayed so we did go into the next town and stayed at the back of the service station.

Welcome to Argentina
 
We usually adhere to the " No Overnight Parking / Camping " signs for the simple reason that once we`ve settled down we want a peaceful night.

We don`t want to be on edge waiting for the " Knock On The Door " especially if you`ve just heard a vehicle come into where you are parked.

The last thing i want is to start Arguing / Discussing whether a sign is legal or not because it isn`t backed up by a relevant T.R.O. or has a
Comma / Full Stop missing so that makes it illegal.

We`ve only once been advised to moved by the Police and that was because the place we`d parked was frequented by Boy Racers and we`d
probably not have a good night.

They recommended another layby 1/2 a mile down the road and that we`d be OK there, it wasn`t an order just a recommendation, the choice
was ours.

We did move and had a very peaceful night and we could at one stage hear the screaming and squealing of engines and tyres in the distance.
 
My experience is that the police are pretty easy going on overnighting. They see a reasonably respectable outfit and people who aren't going to cause a nuisance and they are helpful. It is the jobsworths from other organisations that want to throw their power around.
 
As Smaug said. Location dependent. Some are generalised. In June stayed at Loch Chon Poi which has a no overnighting sign in the car park. Loch Lomond & trossachs National park wardens popped in to say hello. They said they were really only looking for open fires, vandals and buckfast aficionados and were ok with me stopping overnight in a corner of the car park. I got the buckfast out as soon as they were gone. Lol
Whilst on Barra last month. Many of the poi's had no overnighting signs up. This seems due to peeps taking their vehicles further on to the fragile machir/dunes with some lighting fires and staying for up to 6 weeks in the one spot. Again the few numpties spoiling it for good. All was not lost however. I stayed at Scurival campsite owned by Angus John Morrison, a lovely local who charged me £20 for a week with hot showers and kitchen included. No hook up however said I could drive up to the house to charge my batteries if needed. I didn't need it as my solar kept me going. Beautiful spot overlooking a huge stunning sandy beach.
 
Gee said:
As Smaug said. Location dependent. Some are generalised. In June stayed at Loch Chon Poi which has a no overnighting sign in the car park............
Click to expand...

I actually thought to myself, what a strange name for a Scottish Loch, sounds more Chinese, then I realised!!!!!:confused:
 
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