The C&MC and use of electricity.

[Moped]

I suspect the clubs will not be paying domestic discounted rates but commercial ones. Might need some clarification but as you are kind of confirming what I said earlier about the "Ive paid for it so I will use it" thought process if everyone does the same I cannot see how pitch prices with EHU included wont sky rocket this year. How can they not?

We stayed on two CL sites over Christmas and New Year with EHU. One was £18 and one £15. It was cold and windy so the electric heating got used a lot. I wondered if they made much profit at all at those rates. I tried to be sparing with it. I reckon some will be in for a shock in the not too distant future.

CAMC site fees are now on the heavy side anyway so any plea to be sparing with the electric will go on death ears for most of its site visiting membership. Mainly caravaners anyway I would suspect and they normally do require electric.

As a motorhome user I don’t need electric. It’s a nice to have but not a need to have. In saying this we have booked 4 weeks on a CCC site and did weigh up whether to have a non electric grass pitch or one with electric. As it was a 4 week stay I decided to opt for the use of electric at an additional cost of £180 or £35 a week. For a stay of 3 to 5 nights would have gone electric free. But the motorhome will be virtually static for 4 weeks and will do a lot of e-biking and we have a scooter anyway so it seemed sensible to take up the option.

Now why can’t the CAMC offer this option on every site?

 

[merl]

Why not simply charge for hook up separately as an add on?

Nearly every site in France and Spain does this. And then it’s normally 6amp and occasionally 10amp.

Just because a pitch has a socket available doesn’t mean it has to be used.

If 16amp U.K. club electric is forced on me with no option not to use I will use it to excess for heating. That is the way it is. Simple!

With the heating turned up to max we can use the 4kw per hour that 16amp hook up offers. That is around £1.40 an hour if charged at domestic rates. OK when the temperatures reach sauna level then the heating will cruise and it might average 60p an hour after it gets there.

It’s currently freezing in the U.K. so what to the CAMC expect of its visitors?

We are currently in Spain. We are on a 6amp site and Spanish domestic tariffs are 14p per KW not the 35p in the U.K. Electric is included in the tariff as we are ASCI but even so we are using no more than 5kw a day (less than £1 a day) as we do not need to use heating even at night. If we did it would be way too warm!

I guess the reason why the CAMC don't meter leccy or provide non leccy pitches is down to economics/greed. Why would they adopted a fairer system while their sites are chock full of punters willing to pay top dollar for a pitch and then more money for a something they don't use on top?
Answer, if they cared about their members, which they obviously don't, money comes first. We're voting with our feet and we'll return if/when it's economically beneficial to US and not them.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

I'd never want to be a member of club which was more interested in itself than its members and the caravan sites themselves are just a business trying to make a profit and grow and I bet they are just as aggrieved with the clubs and their incessant rules as the members are, I have a friend who has a site and they are thinking of just going private after many years as it's getting beyond a joke.

As a side topic, I also think that local councils should be making ALL sites allow none members to empty and fill at least for a small charge, this might get fewer people doing naughty things with cassettes, and charge a bit more if they want to use other site facilities such as showers.

 

[wildebus]

I'd never want to be a member of club which was more interested in itself than its members and the caravan sites themselves are just a business trying to make a profit and grow and I bet they are just as aggrieved with the clubs and their incessant rules as the members are, I have a friend who has a site and they are thinking of just going private after many years as it's getting beyond a joke.

I have not stayed at many sites (and no C&MC ones) but never seen the 'little hitler' wardens that are supposed to populate them? I have to say without exception, I have found the C&CC folk very friendly and chilled.

As a side topic, I also think that local councils should be making ALL sites allow none members to empty and fill at least for a small charge, this might get fewer people doing naughty things with cassettes, and charge a bit more if they want to use other site facilities such as showers.

Should a council be allowed to tell a private organisation to let people in? What if they knocked on your door saying there was no public toilet close and you have to let passers by use yours to stop them peeing in a bush? I say no.

Maybe local councils shoulds provide THEIR OWN facilities for people to use at a small cost? They (occassionally) have public toilets - they could be adapted to properly allow cassette emptying.
Or Councils could provide one of these machines for folk to use at suitable locations (by the Tourist info place say?)

£2.00 to empty your cassette, have it flushed and then a suitable additive dropped into it seems like a bargain to me?
(this is a photo of the machine at Swiss Farm, Henley that I used. They had the normal emptying points but this also which I gave a go).

More enlightened Campsite Owners could have these at the entrance of the site for non-'residents' to use as well as the site stayers if they wanted.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

I do like that machine, maybe they could also install a car wash type machine that just does the front back and sides but not the roof, I'd pay to use that, £10?

 

[wildebus]

I do like that machine, maybe they could also install a car wash type machine that just does the front back and sides but not the roof, I'd pay to use that, £10?

Sounds like a good idea
In a similar way to Petrol Station who don't make their main profit (apparently) on fuel sales but all the add-ons, like a shop, coffee machines, car wash, etc., it would make a lot of sense for a Campsite owner to, rather than turn people away, encourage them to use some of the facilities such as Toilet and Grey waste emptying, short-term EHU for battery recharging, maybe EV charging in the near future, Cafe and Resturant access, Site shop, etc.
It would be quite right that some facilities are 'residents' only, but surely a campsite owner wants to build their clientele, not pee them off with petty arbitary rules.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

And then we get back to CCCCCCCCC??? (choose your own acronym) and they would have or invent some rules where they wouldn't be allowed to do that, but in drought times a lot of them stayed open as they recycled their own water, or so they said anyway.

 

[Fisherman]

Do we all remember during covid when the C&MC asked us not to use the shower and toilet facilities.
I wrote to them suggesting that they close their facilities and only allow vehicles with facilities access to their sites instead,
and yes reduce fees accordingly.
Well I still await a reply.
What other organisation on the planet would charge people for facilities then ask them not to use them, incase they were unsafe.
The CCC on certain sites did close their facilities due to the fact they felt it would have been unsafe to use them.
The CCC also extended all memberships by three months due to the fact we had no access to their sites for three months.
What did the other lot do, well continued to charge us for facilities they felt may be unsafe to use, and took the full membership with no extensions being applied.
I rest my case m'lord.

 

[Val54]

This will be our last year with CMC for all the reasons others have stated ............. what club benefits there are have become financially insignificant compared with their ever increasing fees.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

What do the site owners get out of it? apart from some sort of booking facility.

 

[merl]

Sounds like a good idea
In a similar way to Petrol Station who don't make their main profit (apparently) on fuel sales but all the add-ons, like a shop, coffee machines, car wash, etc., it would make a lot of sense for a Campsite owner to, rather than turn people away, encourage them to use some of the facilities such as
It would be quite right that some facilities are 'residents' only, but surely a campsite owner wants to build their clientele, not pee them off with petty arbitary rules.

It would make a lot of sense but 'sense' and CAMC simply dont go together.

"a shop, coffee machines, car wash Toilet and Grey waste emptying, short-term EHU for battery recharging, maybe EV charging in the near future, Cafe and Resturant access, Site shop, etc."

and all available to mon members too? NEVER while you have this bunch running the ship.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

All bounders by god, bounders I tell you.

 

[colinm]

A quick history lesson.
Back in the day the Caravan Club (as it was then known) had a choice of EHU, then it was decided that to comply with .gov rules on charging for electricity they would charge everyone the same, and this was to include EHU. When electric was relatively cheap this must have been seen as an easy option, although I'm sure 'we' have all seen people sitting in awnings (or even outside!) with electric heating on. A few years ago any new CL wishing to join where being pushed to only offer EHU.
As for C&CC, we have been members off and on for over 25years, originally we had campervans with no onboard facilities so nearly always used campsites, the clubs attitude to our 'casual' way of booking was often not appreciated, this came to a head one cold wet winters night, we had been trying to phone a site several times one afternoon but kept getting message that warden was out ring back later, eventually we turned up at the site in the dark, parked by toilet block and waited for warden, when he eventually came back to site we where refused a pitch due to water logging, and when we asked to remain parked up next to toilet block this was refused as well, as we drove off I believe he saw the C&CC sticker on back of van as he tried to flag us down, probably best for his health I never stopped as a red mist had dropped over my eyes. We have since re-joined the C&CC, and I must say the warden nowadays are much better.
As for councils telling sites to allow dumping waste etc, I don't agree this should be forced on them, but maybe encouraged in some way, after all some towns have shut down public toilets and have schemes which rely on pubs and shops to voluntarily provide toilets.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

I agree, encouraged might be better.

 

[merl]

Yeh, No5 is saying "Ahhhh, Bartholomew old bean, I've heard that newfangled App thingy is now up and running" and No 6 replies "Indeed Tristran, and apparently it's absolutely splendid and works like a charm". "I heard from Cuthbert that some chap in one of those gastly camper van thingies turned up the other day at the York Rowntree park site and asked if he could fill his tank with water"
Reply "WHAT? how absolutely terrible, what did Beavis the camp commandant say to him?"
Reply " Well quite rightly he told the nasty man to go away and die of thirst along with his wife and children"

 

[Cie]

I reckon this is going to cause problems this year. Electricity prices are going skywards and lets face it, there seems to be many of the opinion on sites or CLs with electric that they have bought it so they will use it. I have heard stories directly from CL owners saying they had guests using great big heaters outside in awnings or leaving fan heaters going in them to dry clothes while they were out etc.

Metering is the way to go of course but I bet the clubs wont do it for two reasons. The majority of their users are addicted to hookup and the second reason, cost. It would probably cost millions to change all the sites to metered hookup and I bet the few motorhomers wanting none electric pitches will be in a minority. All they will do I reckon is put up their charges just like everyone else has had to.

Long live the off the beaten track basic CL sites without hookup I say. Sadly they are few and far between now but thats where ill be heading this year. Lets hope all the newbies have not discovered solar just yet then.

Look up the independent UK Aires that are growing in number too. We are affordable, very few have hookup, provide the basics needed for self contained Motorhomes/campervans plus lots like us offer service drops for waste only

Cecilia
Glenbuchty Stopover, Fraserburgh
www.glenbuchtystopover.co.uk

 

[Pudsey Bear]

I see you charge £5 for staying or just using the facilities, is that a fact or typo?

 

[wildebus]

I see you charge £5 for staying or just using the facilities, is that a fact or typo?

The way I read it, £5 to stay on site. Additional £5 to use the black/toilet waste disposal whether you are staying or not (it may be included when you stay? depends if there is a missing comma on the sentence or not )

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Yes it would seem that way after reading it again.

So it might be £10 if you want to empty the loo if you stay too, not complaining but that does seem a little to much to a tight **** like me..

Nice spot though looked on Google maps street view.

 

[Fisherman]

Look up the independent UK Aires that are growing in number too. We are affordable, very few have hookup, provide the basics needed for self contained Motorhomes/campervans plus lots like us offer service drops for waste only

Cecilia
Glenbuchty Stopover, Fraserburgh
www.glenbuchtystopover.co.uk

I can recommend Glenbuchty, we were there two years ago. Just cross the road and you are at the moray firth. Nice wee spot. You will receive a warm welcome.