Short Sighted Blinkered National Trust

in h said:
Is it?
Their website says "English Heritage cares for over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places - from world-famous prehistoric sites to grand medieval castles, from Roman forts on the edges of an empire to a Cold War bunker."
No mention of caring for people, rich or poor.
Click to expand...
I’m talking about the National Trust. ‘To look after Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty permanently for the benefit of the nation across England, Wales and Northern Ireland’. Motto: for everyone, for ever.
English Heritage is a different kettle of fish. It only split and became a charity in 2015, prior to that as I understand it, it was government run, and is exactly what it states: English Heritage, - to preserve, not necessarily for the people’s pleasure and enjoyment.
We have been members of EH in the past too, but to be honest we found we had little interest, much preferring visits to NT properties than ancient (mostly obscure) monuments etc.
 
Sorry, I thought we'd moved onto Stonehenge entrance charges.
The NT is definitely not an organisation for people. Their focus is on buildings and landscapes.

Handy tip: join NTS instead of NT, join CADW instead of EH.
 
Veloman said:
Took out life membership when I was 21 fifty plus years ago. Can't remember how much it cost but think it was £50. Got a solid silver medallion in a nice green presentation box as well as a posh membership card. It has proved to have been a good investment over the years!!
Click to expand...
Wow a good investment, though still quite a large sum of money then. I looked at life membership a few years ago, but it seemed very expensive.
 
in h said:
Sorry, I thought we'd moved onto Stonehenge entrance charges.
The NT is definitely not an organisation for people. Their focus is on buildings and landscapes.

Handy tip: join NTS instead of NT, join CADW instead of EH.
Click to expand...
When we were members of EH, unfortunately we never got chance to go to Stonehenge, and yes I hear the charges now are ridiculous. Do NTS still allow free parking in the English car parks? There was talk at one time of charging Scottish members?
We became members of NTS years ago too, just so we could get the map and booklet. 😁
 
2cv said:
Whilst individual NT properties have high admission prices if you visit many each year membership works out to be very reasonable.
I had not realised that EH prices for Stonehenge were so outrageous. Link
Click to expand...
It only works out as very reasonable if you can afford it. Many people especially with families are on the breadline...now that they are charging for many of their car parks it means a family cannot even take their kids somewhere nice for a walk. 'Owned for the public to enjoy' should read 'for the middle classes'
Having said that the NT in Scotland is much more reasonable and has discounts so I think it is mostly the English one that is at fault.
 
Is it Natural England that issue camping exemptions? They state 6 metres between vehicles, I guess this is a big issue for anyone wanting to let vans stay on their property and for a U.K. aires system.
 
Well,
I don't think that it's Natural England in charge of allowing exemptions.

There is no basis for the 6 metre separation.

It'd not be a big issue because few places couldn't allow that much space if they had to.

Most Aires don't have marked spaces in any case.

Wanting to let vans stay somewhere doesn't necessarily mean permitting it: you can simply fail to forbid it.

For your assertion to be true, every one of my points would have to be wrong.
 
I am not certain it is Natural England that issues the exemptions, I just seem to think it’s them.

The 6 metre rule is stated in the exemption so you are wrong on that point as if you are going to allow vans to stay and pay you need permission from the local council (who will use the NE requirements) or an exemption certificate. There is probably a number involved before this applies, I would guess at less than 5 as a cl is 5 vans but that’s a guess.

You may well be right on your other points but for someone to set up overnighting to make some money (which is really what this thread was about) they would need to offer some facility, (I would say at least water and waste). This would incur more costs so they would want to get more vans on site.

Is there a specification or guidance for aires in the U.K. or England,? I haven’t head of anything which is why I ‘think’ the NE guidance would apply. Only my opinion from documents I saw when thinking about applying for an exemption.

@Geeky Philip actually has one so he may be able to say rather than what I think. I would like to be wrong on this one 👍
 
My recollection is that there is supposed to be spacing of six metres. That's not the same as separation of six metres. Though that's from other people's comments, not from research.

Six metres spacing gives separation of about four metres, which feels about right.

Six metres separation would mean that each plot would be eleven metres by eight metres as a minimum. Have you seen aires that enforce that sort of spacing?
 
in h said:
My recollection is that there is supposed to be spacing of six metres. That's not the same as separation of six metres. Though that's from other people's comments, not from research.

Six metres spacing gives separation of about four metres, which feels about right.

Six metres separation would mean that each plot would be eleven metres by eight metres as a minimum. Have you seen aires that enforce that sort of spacing?
Click to expand...
That may be the case, it’s a couple of years since I looked into it. I do know they wouldn’t allow any leeway on it when Vernon tried with his.
 
You're right about Natural England. I though it was DEFRA, but they outsourced it to NE.
 
I'm also pretty sure this is a red herring. The kind of facility we are asking for isn't a caravan site. It isn't an Aire. It's just a matter of permitting motorhomes to park overnight in a car park. No camping permitted.
If you start setting up as a CL (by whatever name), it requires a fresh water supply and toilet waste disposal, neither of which many NT car parks can easily provide.
 
I have never been to Stonehenge and, in all honesty, if I died tomorrow wouldn't consider I'd missed out on anything special.

OK, maybe from an historic monument point of view it might be worth a look-see just the once, but if you are going for so-called 'spiritual' reasons then there are loads more ancient stone circles scattered throughout the land that don't attract such huge numbers. Many are also off the beaten track, which is also a good thing.

Wherever there are crowds of folks turning up to mill around together I automatically tend to want to head in the other direction.
One of the few exceptions for me would be (small) music festivals/gatherings and a WC meet once in a while - and that's more to put names to the faces of the reprobates who've posted on here over the years than anything else! 😜 :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:;)
 
in h said:
My recollection is that there is supposed to be spacing of six metres. That's not the same as separation of six metres. Though that's from other people's comments, not from research.
Click to expand...
Now that be done some research, I see why people's comments are all over the place.

There are guidelines requiring at least three metres separation. And suggestions of having six metres between units, but with tents and cars in there!

When I was setting up a temporary campsite, I was told that the Fire Brigade required a certain separation, though the distance varied according to who they'd been listening to.

So I contacted the Fire Brigade, who were very helpful and came out in a fire engine to look.

They told me that there was no minimum spacing between plots required. They were OK with overlapping guy ropes.

It was quite a big site (250 plots), so their only stipulation was that there should be room to drive a fire engine to all parts of the site.
Basically, I guessed that's 3 metre wide roadways (wider at corners). We already needed wider than that for cars pulling caravans.

I failed to find any other requirements on spacing. This was a few years ago. Things may have changed.
 
mariesnowgoose said:
I have never been to Stonehenge and, in all honesty, if I died tomorrow wouldn't consider I'd missed out on anything special.
Click to expand...
When I first visited Stonehenge, you could walk right up to, and between the stones. You could touch them, though I don't think you were supposed to.
It was worth going then. Doubt it is now.
The caves in France, which are high-res replicas, are far more worth visiting, as well as cheaper.
 
Always prefered Avebury, West Kennet Avenue and Long Barrow, and the car park at Silbury Hill is a perfectly good stop over.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who viewed this discussion (Total:0)

Back
Top