French court ruling

This comment is the most interesting "but the court decided that parking a camper overnight does not constitute camping".

In my opinion this is the same in the UK, otherwise there would be lots of unhappy HGV drivers.
 
Admin said:
This comment is the most interesting "but the court decided that parking a camper overnight does not constitute camping".

In my opinion this is the same in the UK, otherwise there would be lots of unhappy HGV drivers.
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No doubt this has been asked a 1000 times but why can HGV drivers sleep in their trucks but we can't sleep in our motorhomes? (in most cases anyway)
 
Steve121 said:
If only British courts were as enlightened as French ones!
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If the opportunity occurred to present a case to a British court then who knows?

Experience shows that we, as a group, do not wish to challenge decisions by a council. Not in a court and not elsewhere. But let's assume that among us there are those prepared to do so.

Then let's debate possible cases.

A council decides to prohibit overnight parking of motorhomes as happened in the quoted French case and as happens here more and more often. We, here, believe that is then a done deal. As a group we generally disapprove of any sort of challenge. The easiest challenge is to simply ignore the ruling, accept a parking ticket (or fine in the case of a byelaw) and use the established appeal procedure to have it overturned. As happened with the Lendal Bridge situation in York resulting in the repayment of some £millions in parking fines. I accept that many of us are not willing to do that and will even argue against those as irresponsible who are ready to do it.

If, as happened in Scarborough and North Yorks, the council fails to follow the legal process for establishing a Traffic Order (say, doesn't involve a public consultation or some other part of its legal obligations) then there is a legal procedure called “judicial review” which calls the council to account for its actions to a court. My experience has shown that councils fear the procedure and will modify introduction of orders and will begin procedures again to avoid having to account for themselves. Some councils have done so when confronted by the threat.

A judicial review is not meant to be a way of influencing a decision (my opinion is not necessarily the right opinion and I accept that) but it is a way of making sure that decisions are made in a legal manner - not these hidden decisions on dubious grounds councils (and some of us, too) are keen on. It might be, I wouldn't know, that a council opinion that overnight parking is the same as overnight camping is not legally valid and in that case a judicial review might be an appropriate procedure - or it might not. We'd need a lawyer to know that but experience shows that councils are sufficiently unsure for them to be frightened of the threat.

An outline of the procedure is here: Courts and Tribunals Judiciary | Judicial review

It has been useful in the past and may be useful again.

The thing is; we don't know if a British court is as enlightened as a French court until we have someone prepared to ask a British Court and knows how to bring a legal argument before it.
 
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Sleeping in your camper

Sleeping in your camper is not illegal you have the same rights as a truck driver. You can voluntary decide to drive to British domestic driving hours by taking a 9 hour break from driving, my camper has business use on it so if I have been working i should take a break.
Also if by stating to a police constable you are not fit to drive ie to tired he will not force you to move as he may be endangering you or other persons he/she will not take responsibility for this. Should they issue you a penalty appeal it dont know of a legal precedence where he law will allow you to endanger others.
Just my opinion!
 
Wildcamping practically

Hello folks again.......just coming up to 3 years now, full-time wildcamping, near Europe, Spain, and southern UK........only got moved on once that was Cannes, 2013 I think.....no parking MH on the sea front in Cannes......PC was very polite, so just moved up to Nice, and parked on seafront for 5 days. I was blocked somehow when trying to respond to recent post, guy reporting height barrier in an indeterminate poi between Corfe Castle and lulworth cove, anyway the last time I came along that B road, I noted 3 possible wilding sites, first at the T junction, road leading to kimmeridge bay?.....narrow roads, but.what about down by the beach?......then as you go up the steep kimmeridge hill towards mod. Firing range, westwards the small quarry on right usually has MHs in it, and finally maybe a bit of a cheek, but what about Lulworth Cove main car park, the charging period if I remember right ends around 2100, and starts again around 0700.......I spent a night there on me travels all OK.........steve Bristol
 
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