but like you said just as clubs are. the law as many get outs .excemptions etc sometimes we have to look at excemptions first as if we are the rules are of no importance.(best know them though).i realise that showman have their guild that as been scruttineering law and rules to suit their way of life. we must also look hard at the rules. is the guild of showmans not just a club of sorts.
That is very true vwallan.
The trouble is that we are divided and will not pull together but want to go our own way doing our own thing.
The big two clubs are only paying lip service to the needs of motor caravan users as they have a vested interest in getting members who will use their sites and certificated locations. The club that claims to be for motor caravanners is operating as a rally club with some locations it has certified but is not leading.
The other smaller clubs are all going their own way independently and only communicating with their own membership.
No one is representing all motorcaravanners, club members or independent and pushing the Tourism and local government people to provide a network of Aires in the UK as our continental cousins enjoy.
We have magazines that claim to be the voice of motor caravanning but when you get down to analying their content they are promoting the sites and locations of the big two clubs and or going off at a tangent trying to set up pub sites certificated by the other club.
Another individual is trying to do the same thing independently.
Divided we fall as the saying goes.
What is needed is for all motor caravanners to unite and push for facilities that we and our visiting cousins can use. The UK is very unfriendly to outsiders requiring them to join a club to be able to use a CL or pay expensive camp site fees to the clubs or independent users.
The French leisure vehicle manufactures and the clubs got together to lobby government to legislate to provide aires and now remove height barriers. We have the National Caravan Council but they dont seem to be promoting anything along these lines. Most manufacturers and the big clubs belong to the NCC but here in the UK we still have the 1950s mindset that caravans need sites and they treat motor caravans as just another form of caravan.
In France from the end of the 60s the local councils have seen the economic benefits of providing sites to independent visitors to use, realising that they bring trade into the area. We have the mindset that we must either use a site or the local hotels or guest houses. We need to pressure our local authorities to realise the benefits that could acrue from providing sites on the french aires lines to the community in general.
Graham of Motorhome Parking and AndyC are working on our behalf but we need a unified approach to get anywhere. Authorities generally will just ignore individuals.
