UK Aires, URGENT help needed for meeting with council

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bigpeetee
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Bigpeetee

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I need your help URGENTLY.

So many moan on here that there's not enough Aire type facilities or even acceptance of Motor Homes.

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN TO HELP!!

I have to create a business case for my local council (Conwy) as to why they should provide Aire services in our county.

I've had some success in Betws y Coed, but I'm trying for a Pan County policy.

To create a business plan for the councillors, I need YOUR help.

1. Any photo's of UK Aires

2. Locations of UK Aires

3. Photos of the best type of Air/Stelleplatz etc, especially where they encourage you to buy from local shops.

4. Details of a typical spend for a weekend/week/fortnight that would contribute to the local economy

5. Statements that you avoid areas that don't encourage MH's

6. Anyone got data on the numbers of MH's in the UK and Europe, the growth in numbers over the past say 10 years?.

7. What you consider a reasonable fee for what facilities?

Plus anything else you can think of.

PLEASE only reply if it is a usefull contribution and not just a moan or funny, much as I appreciate them, I need to keep this to the point.

SHY? If you've never put anything on one of these forums, let this be your first, but if you're too shy for that, please e.mail me at:

peter(at)starsound(dot)org(dot)uk obviously replacing the (at) with an @ etc to stop the robots getting my e.mail!!

I have a group of councillors who are becoming quite pro Motor Homes and want to incorporate it in the future development plans for the area.
 
I will have a think about all the points considered but in the meantime I can PM some contact details for the nice guy who allowed our recent meet in the North East. Thery may take some notice of another Council employee.
 
I can confirm that I boycott areas who don't encourage motorhomes eg Scarborough/Whitby.

I'm likely to spend the money I save on campsites on the local economy. Perhaps £20 a day in local shops or pubs.
 
when i loaded the campingcar infos dongle it put every aire in france onto my laptop as a photo file which works as a screensaver slideshow on my machine so many faboulous shots, unfortunately not techie enough to send you this though if you think it would help i could try and get one of the grandkids to do it,
i have a setter and among doglovers the ability to take your dog away with you is a compelling argument lots of campsites either ban dogs or want a ridicoulous sum for them with no facilities provided,
i wish you sucess as wales has always been a favourite destination of ours and we have already lost LLanberis one of my favourite places in the world and felt so unwelcome on our last trip to angelsey that has also been crossed of the list looks like only scotland or the continent left,
 
Good luck with your dealings with the council!

As far as I know the only 'proper' aires in the UK are in Northern Ireland and most, if not all, of them have come about due to the efforts of Christine Quinn and The Motorhome Association in persuading local councils to set them up. I'll PM you her email address as I'm sure she will have some useful detail for you.

There are several local authorities in England/Wales that permit (or at least don't prohibit) motorhomes to stay overnight in certain car parks, probably the most well known are Canterbury (Canterbury City Council), Bury St Edmunds (St Edmundsbury Borough Council), St Annes (Fylde Borough Council) and West Beach, Hayling Island (Havant Borough Council). All the ones I know about are listed on my page at Overnight motorhomes stopovers | aires | camperstops in the UK and Ireland including the Practical Motorhome Nightstop Scheme locations

Vicarious Books have a page of useful info about setting up motorhome stopovers here: How to construct and where to locate a motorhome Aire service point

AndyC
 
Bigpeetee said:
I need your help URGENTLY.

So many moan on here that there's not enough Aire type facilities or even acceptance of Motor Homes.

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN TO HELP!!

I have to create a business case for my local council (Conwy) as to why they should provide Aire services in our county.

I've had some success in Betws y Coed, but I'm trying for a Pan County policy.

To create a business plan for the councillors, I need YOUR help.

1. Any photo's of UK Aires

2. Locations of UK Aires

3. Photos of the best type of Air/Stelleplatz etc, especially where they encourage you to buy from local shops.

4. Details of a typical spend for a weekend/week/fortnight that would contribute to the local economy

5. Statements that you avoid areas that don't encourage MH's

6. Anyone got data on the numbers of MH's in the UK and Europe, the growth in numbers over the past say 10 years?.

7. What you consider a reasonable fee for what facilities?

Plus anything else you can think of.

PLEASE only reply if it is a usefull contribution and not just a moan or funny, much as I appreciate them, I need to keep this to the point.

SHY? If you've never put anything on one of these forums, let this be your first, but if you're too shy for that, please e.mail me at:

peter(at)starsound(dot)org(dot)uk obviously replacing the (at) with an @ etc to stop the robots getting my e.mail!!

I have a group of councillors who are becoming quite pro Motor Homes and want to incorporate it in the future development plans for the area.
Click to expand...

Will put something together over next couple of days and email to you regarding our recent experience in not stopping because it was obvious that we were not welcome by the local council and so we did not spend and moved on to a more MH friendly location.
 
Reply e-mailed, hope you can use it. Sorry I can't supply "facts" but I have tried to include specific example of recent personal spend & reasoned opinions. Please feel free to quote in part or whole as you wish.
 
Hi, motor homing is confined to weekends and those weekends are meant to be a treat so we always start with a takeaway on the Friday evening from whichever town/village we are close to.

We tend to meander through that town/village the next day so usually have snacks and sometimes spend in the smaller shops.

If we do eat in the motor home it is with food bought locally because we don't take anything with us other than breakfast.

Sunday is usually lunch in a pub as we wend our way home.

We absolutely hate 'proper' caravan sites, CLs are fine but take too much planning. We would be more than happy to spend about £5-£6 a night on an aire as we will pay that for a quiet car park. We wouldn't expect facilities other than perhaps water and a toilet emptying thingie.
 
Thanks for the replies and e.mails so far.

I know it takes time to do, but it's worth it, hopefully!!
 
UK Aires help needed

Well done you, would it be possible fror someone to compile a list of "bullett points" so that some of us may like to contact our local council and try to get them to allow aires in their area.

I understand Ilfracombe in North Devon have set up an official aries, I will try to get some more details for you.

Paul "wasfitonce"
 
Councils

Hope you have some luck .My council did not even reply,tried a few years ago.Might try again.milton keynes has a good bus station with buses to shopping area.
 
Point 6

DVLA have the stats but will require a fee to release them.

Richard
 
Powys CC allows overnight parking in its car parks and makes no charges. Speaking from my own experience, this encourages me to visit the Brecon Beacons most weeks throughout the year and while there I spend in the town. During the summer there are other motorhomers using the car parks attracted by the parking and, like me, they make use of the town's facilities and visit nearby attractions thereby supporting the local economy. Without the parking facility, they would probably drive on by and spend elsewhere.

I doubt the provision of aires would lead to much or any lost trade for camp site owners and the presence of aires is very likely to support a local economy while causing no nuisance for local residents. If anything, it might actually be a benefit because the presence of several occupied vans can help keep late-night boy-racers at bay!
 
Most Aires/Stellplatze I've visited have some advertising for local shops or businesses along with the "rules" for staying there.
 
I just wish to make a point here regards spend ,if i was on a campsite not a cl but a proper campsite invaribly they would have there own shop, and the spend would be done there thus cutting out the local shops rather than pack up camper and drive to local shops ,whereas a local aire would encourage the spend to be done local within walking distance and would help benifit local community ,ie job for someone, local rates,and not empty boarded up bulding detracting from the area and putting off tourists
 
Keep them comming, I've also received quite a number of private messages and e.mails.

When I've completed, I'll share with all.
 
As a general rule, I only go North to Scotland (about 6 times a year). Why? Because they welcome us, and because they allow wild camping/cp camping. On the last trip I spent nearly £100's in shops, ranging from Farm Shops to Antique Centres to Local Charity Shops.

I'd also put a nod towards Tesco's/Oban Council who've created Motohome parking bays in their CP.

However, I would head to N Wales if I knew I'd get the same reaction.
 
The main Priority for me is that the aires should be safe - I wouldn't leave my van on its own in an industrial estate / retail park / housing scheme in the middle of nowhere - so that I would be confident leaving it and being able to come back to it intact. I'd be happy to pay for that sort of thing and on the continent, 8 euros seems normal so about £5 is equivalent. Ideally I'd like to be either completely rural for walking, or within walking distance of the town centre for touristy things - but not inbetween!

I'd happily spend £50 for the two of us to eat, drink and be merry on one of our evenings. If on a longer trip, three days worth of groceries would add another £20 - £40 depending on whether the wine would need topped up too, and up to £100 on fuel.

In terms of facilities, fresh water and grey water drainage would be good to avoid carrying extra weight but not a showstopper.

We have said many times that the nicely located car parking areas in our county could make a small fortune this way - if the council had the foresight to put in ticket machines with a reasonable charge rather than NOP signs, we reckon they'd do really well. Minimum extra maintenance (they are being maintained for daytime parking anyway) and the prospect of an extra few quid for the council as well as a significant amount more for local businesses - if you were running this as a business, it would be a no-brainer.

Best of luck with this!
 
wasfitonce said:
I understand Ilfracombe in North Devon have set up an official aries, I will try to get some more details for you.

Paul "wasfitonce"
Click to expand...
I believe the Ilfracombe proposal is a private initiative and is still in the planning stage. I hear that the fact it's in an AONB might be causing some difficulty.

AndyC
 
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