CL site costs

mistericeman said:
Sounds perfect ....one of our fave areas and some lovely 'wild' spots over there if you look carefully ;-)
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I had been off grid for well over a week but was ready for empty fill and wanted to fully charge the battery’s, loads of places to stop free.
 
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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Hi Roger, we stayed with you for two weeks on a rally a few years back. Lovely spot. Concraft Camping Club.
 
barryd said:
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.
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We are retired and run a small MCC CL as we’ve camped, caravanned and MH’d all our lives (still do) and just love the life and meeting people. It’s a basic CL with EHU and we charge £14 plus £4 EHU. We ‘normally’ only have two MH‘s in at a time as we like it quiet and don’t advertise other than in the Club magazine and we’re on SfSites so we’re not that busy. We started at £10/night three years ago but overheads keep going up and up. Insurance, the electrical test alone cost us over £400 this year, (the capital cost for EHU installation we’ll never recover) water and sewage rates, rubbish disposal, printing, and even fuel for the mowers cost us over £100 this last twelve months, equipment maintenance and replacement, general bits and bobs, black sacks, tax etc etc etc. Not sure what we’re going to do re EHU as we metered a van on site during a bit of a chilly spell recently and they used £10 worth per night. We want to give people a value for money stay but it’s getting really difficult now. BUT we’ll keep going because we like to give something back to our hobby.
 
Jaytee said:
We are retired and run a small MCC CL as we’ve camped, caravanned and MH’d all our lives (still do) and just love the life and meeting people. It’s a basic CL with EHU and we charge £14 plus £4 EHU. We ‘normally’ only have two MH‘s in at a time as we like it quiet and don’t advertise other than in the Club magazine and we’re on SfSites so we’re not that busy. We started at £10/night three years ago but overheads keep going up and up. Insurance, the electrical test alone cost us over £400 this year, (the capital cost for EHU installation we’ll never recover) water and sewage rates, rubbish disposal, printing, and even fuel for the mowers cost us over £100 this last twelve months, equipment maintenance and replacement, general bits and bobs, black sacks, tax etc etc etc. Not sure what we’re going to do re EHU as we metered a van on site during a bit of a chilly spell recently and they used £10 worth per night. We want to give people a value for money stay but it’s getting really difficult now. BUT we’ll keep going because we like to give something back to our hobby.
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Yep its not good for CL owners and particularly ones like yourself who are clearly not running it to make money (not that I suppose many of them do make much). I remember talking to a couple of CL owners with EHU a while back now before the energy crisis and they reckoned they often saw guests running outdoor heaters and the like all day long warming and drying clothes while they were out. There is a certain element that think "Ive paid for it so ill use it" but apart from that being totally selfish and damaging to the environment its likely to put good people like yourself out of business (well, just closing down).

Ive long said metered electric is the way to go although I appreciate retrospectively its expensive to install. Or a reduced amperage. 3 amps maybe. That should focus a few. As long as I Can keep the battery charged, lights on and charge phones, laptops etc out of solar season when onsite for a week or so I would happily use the gas to keep us warm if it meant CL sites didnt close or have to start charging campsite+ sites to stay open.

When we were on Arran the last few days of September after wilding for nearly two months we spent a few nights hooked up on our favourite CL at Kings Cross. Just us and the odd other van. I think it was £22 a night with EHU and the lady there said she was closing down as it just wasnt worth her while with the rising costs. We may have well been the last visitors ever and thats a crying shame. I pleaded with her to consider what I said above.
 
barryd said:
Yep its not good for CL owners and particularly ones like yourself who are clearly not running it to make money (not that I suppose many of them do make much). I remember talking to a couple of CL owners with EHU a while back now before the energy crisis and they reckoned they often saw guests running outdoor heaters and the like all day long warming and drying clothes while they were out. There is a certain element that think "Ive paid for it so ill use it" but apart from that being totally selfish and damaging to the environment its likely to put good people like yourself out of business (well, just closing down).

Ive long said metered electric is the way to go although I appreciate retrospectively its expensive to install. Or a reduced amperage. 3 amps maybe. That should focus a few. As long as I Can keep the battery charged, lights on and charge phones, laptops etc out of solar season when onsite for a week or so I would happily use the gas to keep us warm if it meant CL sites didnt close or have to start charging campsite+ sites to stay open.

When we were on Arran the last few days of September after wilding for nearly two months we spent a few nights hooked up on our favourite CL at Kings Cross. Just us and the odd other van. I think it was £22 a night with EHU and the lady there said she was closing down as it just wasnt worth her while with the rising costs. We may have well been the last visitors ever and thats a crying shame. I pleaded with her to consider what I said above.
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Some Aires in France only have ehu on a few hours a day . Maybe 3×2 hour spells .
 
alcam said:
Some Aires in France only have ehu on a few hours a day . Maybe 3×2 hour spells .
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Never seen that. I have however been on a fair few that are totally free with EHU. I wonder if they are still many about. I guess generally a lot of them are only open in spring, summer and autumn. Not much heating needed.

I think a few CL sites do it already but perhaps a tiered charging rate might work depending on the time of year. Maybe all camp sites and CLs should be banned from providing hookup at all from the end of April to the end of September. :D When you think about it, there is no reason for anyone to need it during those times. It would force people into investing in solar power which is great for everyone and the environment.
 
barryd said:
Never seen that. I have however been on a fair few that are totally free with EHU. I wonder if they are still many about. I guess generally a lot of them are only open in spring, summer and autumn. Not much heating needed.

I think a few CL sites do it already but perhaps a tiered charging rate might work depending on the time of year. Maybe all camp sites and CLs should be banned from providing hookup at all from the end of April to the end of September. :D When you think about it, there is no reason for anyone to need it during those times.
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Came across a couple last trip . Think Dieppe another one in Brittany (?) .
If you read reviews on SforS it's a common complaint .
Possibly the cheapest way (installation wise) to curtail usage ?
 
barryd said:
Never seen that. I have however been on a fair few that are totally free with EHU. I wonder if they are still many about. I guess generally a lot of them are only open in spring, summer and autumn. Not much heating needed.

I think a few CL sites do it already but perhaps a tiered charging rate might work depending on the time of year. Maybe all camp sites and CLs should be banned from providing hookup at all from the end of April to the end of September. :D When you think about it, there is no reason for anyone to need it during those times. It would force people into investing in solar power which is great for everyone and the environment.
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Would you like to tell our daughter that :unsure: I highly recommend you pre-book an ambulance first though o_O:eek:🤣🤣

How the hell would she power her GHD`s and other power hungrey hair orientated machinery when they are away in their caravan without EHU 🤪
 
barryd said:
Never seen that. I have however been on a fair few that are totally free with EHU. I wonder if they are still many about. I guess generally a lot of them are only open in spring, summer and autumn. Not much heating needed.

I think a few CL sites do it already but perhaps a tiered charging rate might work depending on the time of year. Maybe all camp sites and CLs should be banned from providing hookup at all from the end of April to the end of September. :D When you think about it, there is no reason for anyone to need it during those times. It would force people into investing in solar power which is great for everyone and the environment.
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Been on few free French Aires with free EHU this year, power was turned off at all of them, not surprising really.
 
mistericeman said:
To be honest I think pretty much anything more than charging your batteries is taking the mick on a un metered hook up on a cl etc .
Especially where its a 'reasonable' charge ...
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Spot on but , as I'm sure you know , high percentage won't do that voluntarily .
Why I think aires need to limit use or meter use
 
barryd said:
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.
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Brilliant observations. I agree 100%!
 
We started work on a c/l before lockdown after talking to camc...put in electric and water to a barn at edge of our field ( just under £1k)
Next was black at other end of 2 acre field........?
We have now stopped due to increased cost of electric supply.. plus we would need to level a part of field...
We run our motorhome fridge for 24hrs on electric just too see extra cost....it was close on £4 ....just a 9 year old fridgeo_O
It would take a long time to recoup costs at what people would like to pay and I'm 70 now so the plan is going downhill fast...
5 years ago it looked a good plan, but not now
 
Drover said:
We started work on a c/l before lockdown after talking to camc...put in electric and water to a barn at edge of our field ( just under £1k)
Next was black at other end of 2 acre field........?
We have now stopped due to increased cost of electric supply.. plus we would need to level a part of field...
We run our motorhome fridge for 24hrs on electric just too see extra cost....it was close on £4 ....just a 9 year old fridgeo_O
It would take a long time to recoup costs at what people would like to pay and I'm 70 now so the plan is going downhill fast...
5 years ago it looked a good plan, but not now
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Wow! That seems excessive. I though the fridges in vans were pretty frugal. I know ours on gas hardly uses anything but of course never measured it on electric. The killer I thought would be electric heating. 2kw heater is going to hammer the electric which is possibly why I think CL prices and site prices with hookup will soar.
 
Excuse a Swede. CL site, have they received some kind of approval from some authority. Or do they belong to a chain.
 
Drover said:
We started work on a c/l before lockdown after talking to camc...put in electric and water to a barn at edge of our field ( just under £1k)
Next was black at other end of 2 acre field........?
We have now stopped due to increased cost of electric supply.. plus we would need to level a part of field...
We run our motorhome fridge for 24hrs on electric just too see extra cost....it was close on £4 ....just a 9 year old fridgeo_O
It would take a long time to recoup costs at what people would like to pay and I'm 70 now so the plan is going downhill fast...
5 years ago it looked a good plan, but not now
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Tbh most of us don't need electric.
Always assume the power guzzlers are less likely to go to rural cls
 
barryd said:
Wow! That seems excessive. I though the fridges in vans were pretty frugal. I know ours on gas hardly uses anything but of course never measured it on electric. The killer I thought would be electric heating. 2kw heater is going to hammer the electric which is possibly why I think CL prices and site prices with hookup will soar.
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Ours is very good on gas,,, not used electric for over 12 months . It's a dometic 8555 fridge freezer and was empty, I put it on 4 out of 5 .normally on 3 when using gas.. I did have a shock so tried it again with same result..
The cost is a bit high for the return that could be expected for us to carry on with the CL. So it's back to long time touring
We put the electric/water in so we could use the cl when we rented out the small place we built ( camc weren't keen on that idea either)
 
Kalleiviken said:
Excuse a Swede. CL site, have they received some kind of approval from some authority. Or do they belong to a chain.
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Guide here

Setting Up a Certificated Location Campsite

Join the Caravan and Motorhome's campsite network by becoming a certificated location. Discover what you need to do to set up your campsite. Learn more here.
www.caravanclub.co.uk www.caravanclub.co.uk

They are not part of a chain but most CL or CS owners are attached to one of the two big Caravan and camping clubs here. So the Caravan and Motorhoming club and the Caravan and camping club as they have the exemption that allows the CL owners to set up CL and CS sites on their own land so there isn't generally any planning permission needed or approval.
 
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