Problems in Fife

[Fisherman]

Stayed there a number of times for one night only. Rarely was there another motorhome or camper van there. It sounds like the Council has provided a facility, word gets round on the internet and it becomes a hotspot. If that is the case then with great sadness we will never overnight there again if it acts as a magnet for shitheads.

Both Elie and kings barns had problems in the past, hence why these measures were only introduced there. Fife have plans to extend this to other carparks, but after this I don’t know what they will do now.
But the weekend in question was a bank holiday weekend with good weather, it was fine through the week. I will avoid Elie in high season at weekends, otherwise it will be fine I reckon. Also I opened this thread to make everyone aware of what is going on, hopefully others on here who post elsewhere will do likewise. This may help to bring some normality back to Elie.
And yes maingate I agree with you, to some extent what Fife are trying to do may be commendable, but as you say it has at least on a temporary basis increased the interest in Elie and Kingsbarns.

 

[maingate]

There is far too much valuable information given out on here and gifted to whoever is lurking for just that reason.

Go to the top right of the forum page and check who is online. At the moment it is 47 members, 159 guests. Nobody knows who these people are, or what kind of wildcamper they are. I used to say this at regular intervals over the yeears on here but people must forget that loose lips sink ships.

There are forums on here that can only be seen by members, lurkers will not get access to them. Tat is where these sort of threads should be posted.

Edit. I have just logged out and I can still read every word of this thread. Try it yourselves.

 

[edina]

There is far too much valuable information given out on here and gifted to whoever is lurking for just that reason.

Go to the top right of the forum page and check who is online. At the moment it is 47 members, 159 guests. Nobody knows who these people are, or what kind of wildcamper they are. I used to say this at regular intervals over the yeears on here but people must forget that loose lips sink ships.

There are forums on here that can only be seen by members, lurkers will not get access to them. Tat is where these sort of threads should be posted.

Edit. I have just logged out and I can still read every word of this thread. Try it yourselves.

Bill, message me if you want the thread moving?

 

[maingate]

Bill, message me if you want the thread moving?

Don't take this the wrong way, I know you Mods have plenty other things to do than give your time for free but could these sort of threads be arbitrarily moved by Mods when they appear?

Thanks.

 

[edina]

Don't take this the wrong way, I know you Mods have plenty other things to do than give your time for free but could these sort of threads be arbitrarily moved by Mods when they appear?

Thanks.

Hi Jim,
I DO give my time for free!
I try to help wherever I can, but have learnt that moving threads to a 'better' place without asking the OP often upsets our more sensitive members. Most of my time on here is spent enlarging photos that folk keep posting as thumbnails.

 

[Bigshug]

Do you think that suggesting to the council that putting a two day maximum stay on the notice would prevent long stayers hogging the overnight bays?

 

[The Jacks]

It says
"Concidered others and stay no more than 2 nights" on the notice.

 

[Fisherman]

Do you think that suggesting to the council that putting a two day maximum stay on the notice would prevent long stayers hogging the overnight bays?

Shug I think a two night stay from Monday to Friday is just about right. We have a 55mile each way journey to Elie, a one night stat would not be viable. Weekends maybe one night.
Bottom line, Fife council have tried to be fair, they did their research, and put provisions in place to cater for us. They may or may not have erred, but they are just trying this out, changes will be forthcoming.
I hope plenty read this thread, then pass this on to others, and hopefully things will improve. Sadly I think that human nature will win over, and Fife may have to take measures to rectify a situation created by some of us Motorhome owners.

 

[QFour]

You get the same problems in France. Nice spot and 2 Mhs with awnings out facing each other so using 4 spaces. No one seems to bother much and if the Aire is full they park where the can. Council will need to police it if they want to stop it. That means employing someone and that means creating revenue so charges and fines. Same old a few spoiling it for the rest.

 

[Fisherman]

You get the same problems in France. Nice spot and 2 Mhs with awnings out facing each other so using 4 spaces. No one seems to bother much and if the Aire is full they park where the can. Council will need to police it if they want to stop it. That means employing someone and that means creating revenue so charges and fines. Same old a few spoiling it for the rest.

If you read through Fifes original proposals below, you will note that originally they intended to charge for an annual pass, and for each overnight stay.
They already employ several wardens who open and close the toilets, and clean and maintain them.
If they charged for the annual passes, and for overnight stays then these charges could offset any overtime paid to the wardens.
I reckon that they may well start these charges soon in order to attempt to control the situation.
But they have issues regarding ownership of some carparks, such as Kingbarns.
Its doubtful if they could make charges mandatory there.
They will have to seek legal advice on some of these issues.

Freedom-Camping-Options-Paper-on-Motorhome-Use-in-Fife.pdf

 

[Fisherman]

I forgot to mention earlier, but Elie carpark will be having its old toilets replaced with the same type as recently installed at Kingsbarns.

 

[maureenandtom]

We need a little deeper thought as to why this happens. If we do not then we ignore one of the reasons why there are some people who do not support the provision of aire style faciiities. If a council does what I've striven for years to make happen and make selected places have permited overngiht parking, it mgiht not be doing the right thing. The reason can be put briefly like this – the council can now justifiably say, “We've done what you wanted and this is where you can park overngiht – but nowhere else”.

If a council provides permitted overnight parking spaces then it deserves, and receives from me at least, a small note thanking it. A council, and we, might think it does a service by allowing, say, five motor homes but what about number six? Where does he go. He goes somewhere else, of course or we call him an idiot who spoils it for the rest of us. But … there is nowhere else.

So number six stays. And then comes along numbers seven and eight and so on. Well, they stay too. And earn our anger. Ignoring one rule leads to ignoring others too.

But where do the late-comers go? Should have booked ahead? Like the Lake District authority said a day or so ago? Don'lt come if youjhaven't booked ahead? For an aire? Won't be an aire.

 

[Fisherman]

We need a little deeper thought as to why this happens. If we do not then we ignore one of the reasons why there are some people who do not support the provision of aire style faciiities. If a council does what I've striven for years to make happen and make selected places have permited overngiht parking, it mgiht not be doing the right thing. The reason can be put briefly like this – the council can now justifiably say, “We've done what you wanted and this is where you can park overngiht – but nowhere else”.

If a council provides permitted overnight parking spaces then it deserves, and receives from me at least, a small note thanking it. A council, and we, might think it does a service by allowing, say, five motor homes but what about number six? Where does he go. He goes somewhere else, of course or we call him an idiot who spoils it for the rest of us. But … there is nowhere else.

So number six stays. And then comes along numbers seven and eight and so on. Well, they stay too. And earn our anger. Ignoring one rule leads to ignoring others too.

But where do the late-comers go? Should have booked ahead? Like the Lake District authority said a day or so ago? Don'lt come if youjhaven't booked ahead? For an aire? Won't be an aire.

These current parking measures are being looked at closely.
Possibly the weekend in question provided the perfect storm.
Bank holiday weekend, good weather, and as previously mentioned some may have been attracted because of these very measures, being in effect as you say counter productive. But I don’t think Fife would have bothered if say two or three vans parked outwith the designated places. But 30 vans were they made provision for only 7 places is not acceptable.
I am hoping that word gets round what is going on and many including myself will stay clear in potentially busy times.

 

[jacquigem]

Or maybe they put more motorhome spaces in and increase revenue if the demand is there ?

 

[kensowerby]

£$%^ heads with the me me me me attitude, I am the only one that matters.

 

[Tonybvi]

Booked into Findhorn motorhome stopover for a couple of nights next week. Findhorn like Elie has been plagued by inconsiderate motorhomers in the past when it was purely voluntary contributions with no controls. It will be interesting to see how effective their system is now. I know that it cost £15 per night for a max of 2 nights with effectively no facilities but quite frankly I am prepared to pay this if it is properly controlled and I feel far more comfortable in a place where we are welcome. Apparently there is an ANPR controlled barrier as you need to give your reg no. when booking and paying.

 

[Fisherman]

Booked into Findhorn motorhome stopover for a couple of nights next week. Findhorn like Elie has been plagued by inconsiderate motorhomers in the past when it was purely voluntary contributions with no controls. It will be interesting to see how effective their system is now. I know that it cost £15 per night for a max of 2 nights with effectively no facilities but quite frankly I am prepared to pay this if it is properly controlled and I feel far more comfortable in a place where we are welcome. Apparently there is an ANPR controlled barrier as you need to give your reg no. when booking and paying.

It looks stunning Tony, one for the future. Hope you enjoy your stay.

 

[Tonybvi]

We love Findhorn and go there quite often (but not since the new stopover was created) It’s a lovely place if you like boating and coast walking. Plus easy walking distance to the village and a couple of excellent hostelries. Even the Findhorn Foundation is an interesting place to visit with unusual houses - think straw bale or whisky barrel - and an excellent deli. The only slight drawback is although the stopover is right beside the sea you can’t see it because of the dunes, unlike Elie with its excellent sea views.

 

[Veloman]

To make it worse we couldn’t get a fish supper from the wee chippy at Anstruther as the whole area was very busy with long queues at every chip shop

No, we had intended to stay there or up at Kingsbarn, but thought that if Elie was as bad as that then Kingsbarn would be just as bad. The photo that you posted of the bigger car park that area was full of motorhomes, even big tents on the grassy part of that area. We could have parked on the disabled spaces for the day, my wife has a blue badge, but didn‘t want to add to the congestion.
To make it worse we couldn’t get a fish supper from the wee chippy at Anstruther as the whole area was very busy with long queues at every chip shop

That brought back memories! Motorcycling and tent camping in the late '60s. chips and battered black pudding at Anstruther by the harbour, a delicacy hitherto unknown to me and my future wife. I wonder if its the same chippy and if they still do battered blackpudding? Cant say I fancy it now but at the time, cold and wet it was a life saver.

 

[barge1914]

We were planning on heading up that coastline next Monday-Tuesday. If Elie and Knigsbarns are getting out of hand has anyone got any good suggestions for reasonably quiet spots…one night east of Kirkcaldy and one further around the coast. West Wemyss? Taymouth?