Dartmoor national park wild camping ban...

[Moped]

what can a nt warden actually do in a carpark at 11pm. ?

as i understand it traveller encampments, doing nothing else illegal, off the highway are out of the remit of the police, private land owner has to go to court to get eviction order then employ baliffs to verbally persuade the campers to move on. as landowners we were advised that using force to move hippies on would result in the police arresting us on our own land.. using a jcb to shift a caravan would at least result in a charge of criminal damage, even spreading slurry and manure upwind would result in the travelers getting the council environmental health bods out. i would assume same laws apply to solo motorhomes. the law, and non legal signs only work if your afraid of the largely non existant consequences.

If there is a local national park bylaw then authorities and wardens have powers to issue offence tickets.

If you subsequently do not move you will receive a second offence ticket the following night and so on.

Agree they cannot forcibly move you on and require court order but you will be receiving multiple offence tickets until you are moved by force by court order.

And any wildcamper acting in such a manner does a disservice to those who act legally, which I assume those members here do?

 

[Moped]

If there is a local national park bylaw then authorities and wardens have powers to issue offence tickets.

If you subsequently do not move you will receive a second offence ticket the following night and so on.

Agree they cannot forcibly move you on and require court order but you will be receiving multiple offence tickets until you are moved by force by court order.

And any wildcamper acting in such a manner does a disservice to those who act legally, which I assume those members here do?

Much of national Park land is open space common land. Park bylaws will not apply to private fenced off land and any travellers entering this privately owned land will inevitably have had to break the lock on a gate or damage a fence or carry out some act that requires forcible entry to the land.

 

[Nabsim]

I lived in a National Park for almost 50 years and there are always places you can park where nobody bothers you and you will always get a friendly hello if you are actually out and about. I stop quite a lot in National parks and have never been asked to move, in fact last year when I got snowed in for 8 days a warden used to drive by each day to check I was okay and give me a wave.
I have friends who full time and spend most of their time on Dartmoor and they never used to get any bother, one has had a little a couple of months ago still finds lots of spots out the way with no bother.
Not all land inside a National Park belongs to the park, wardens are only concerned with their lands.
I believe a lot of the current media hype is a build up to a second attempt at passing the trespass law. All the posting on social media is adding fuel to the fire. The government are using social media to attain what they want for a change,they have learnt a little from rioters and terrorists.

 

[GeoffL]

You don't think it could be it's proximity to the airport, or is it because it's in Cornwall and they don't like visitors. It could just be that a bunch of people chatting can seem very noisy at night, even at quite a distance.

The car park is about 2.5 miles from the seaward end of Newquay airport's runway and the nearest village is almost a mile away. Now that @sydnsue mentioned it's an insurance issue, it makes sense that the wardens are exercising 'due dilligence'.

what can a nt warden actually do in a carpark at 11pm. ?
[...]

They can check that you do not intend staying overnight and if they think you do then they can require you to leave. Having done that, they have taken all the reasonable steps they can at the time to comply with their insurer's conditions. If you fail to comply, they cannot lawfully evict you by force. However, I suspect that (like so many other landowners) they might erect height barriers and/or reduce the entrance width to ensure that even PVCs can't get in if motorhomers regularly extract the urine in this manner!

FWIW, we pack the gear up when we've finished stargazing and drive a couple of miles up the road where there is a layby to stop and catch a few hours kip as we don't want to antagonise the wardens.

 

[mickymost]

The car park is about 2.5 miles from the seaward end of Newquay airport's runway and the nearest village is almost a mile away. Now that @sydnsue mentioned it's an insurance issue, it makes sense that the wardens are exercising 'due dilligence'.

They can check that you do not intend staying overnight and if they think you do then they can require you to leave. Having done that, they have taken all the reasonable steps they can at the time to comply with their insurer's conditions. If you fail to comply, they cannot lawfully evict you by force. However, I suspect that (like so many other landowners) they might erect height barriers and/or reduce the entrance width to ensure that even PVCs can't get in if motorhomers regularly extract the urine in this manner!

FWIW, we pack the gear up when we've finished stargazing and drive a couple of miles up the road where there is a layby to stop and catch a few hours kip as we don't want to antagonise the wardens.

Geoff thank you for the explanation

 

[runnach]

what can a nt warden actually do in a carpark at 11pm. ?

as i understand it traveller encampments, doing nothing else illegal, off the highway are out of the remit of the police, private land owner has to go to court to get eviction order then employ baliffs to verbally persuade the campers to move on. as landowners we were advised that using force to move hippies on would result in the police arresting us on our own land.. using a jcb to shift a caravan would at least result in a charge of criminal damage, even spreading slurry and manure upwind would result in the travelers getting the council environmental health bods out. i would assume same laws apply to solo motorhomes. the law, and non legal signs only work if your afraid of the largely non existant consequences.

Traveller camps , encroach on land deliberately not entering into a contract, therefore issuing tickets is futile there is no contract to enforce ...( this situation was confirmed with Leicestershire county council) the only recourse the council have is to obtain a court order for trespass. If you take note travellers always move towards a weekend which buys court time

 

[Debroos]

I lived in a National Park for almost 50 years and there are always places you can park where nobody bothers you and you will always get a friendly hello if you are actually out and about. I stop quite a lot in National parks and have never been asked to move, in fact last year when I got snowed in for 8 days a warden used to drive by each day to check I was okay and give me a wave.
I have friends who full time and spend most of their time on Dartmoor and they never used to get any bother, one has had a little a couple of months ago still finds lots of spots out the way with no bother.
Not all land inside a National Park belongs to the park, wardens are only concerned with their lands.
I believe a lot of the current media hype is a build up to a second attempt at passing the trespass law. All the posting on social media is adding fuel to the fire. The government are using social media to attain what they want for a change,they have learnt a little from rioters and terrorists.

I am pretty sure that the vast majority of National Park land is privately owned, unlike National Trust. National Park is a designation for environmental and leisure purposes. Presumably they all have legally binding bye laws to enable them to enforce the no overnighting rules should they wish to do so.
Very heartening to hear that folks are still able to stay over on Dartmoor. I presume it is in out of sight spots not in the high up scenic car parks where you can be seen for miles!