WC on Dartmoor news

[JQB]

To be honest ....I fear for the peak district if 'wild camping' is allowed ....

Idiots everywhere spoil it for the majority

 

[mistericeman]

Idiots everywhere spoil it for the majority

True ....particular issue for the Peak District is it's pretty much surrounded on all sides by large conurbations
Manchester
Sheffield
Derby
Stoke
Leeds

So all those heavily populated areas pouring into a relatively small area .

 

[JQB]

It’s time the king opened up some of his land for common folks

Very good point, but his agents would sting u for £s. It's all about the bottom line for the business just like any other.

 

[edina]

Very good point, but his agents would sting u for £s. It's all about the bottom line for the business just like any other.

We used to moor our boat in the river Exe and pay the local garage owner to look after it. Someone then decided the river bed was part of some royal charter and as you say we got stung for mooring fees, and still had to pay the garage to maintain it

 

[JQB]

1983, I used to drive up to Haytor with a 20ft mast (2 x 10ft sections) lashed to the roofrack of my car (Citroen GS back then). I was on a month's leave following return from the Falklands. A friend used to park his camper by the side of the 'Duck Pond' (GPS 50.518 -4.037) and converse with all and sundry via CB while I was doing the same thing from Haytor on the amateur 2m band. I remember many other campers wild camping on the moor back then but have no idea whether it was legal!

Anyway, time for a side-ditty! I used to jack up the suspension to get over a hump and then follow a 4x4 trail to about halfway up the tor. About 3:00am, I was packing up when I noticed a police car in the layby at the bottom of the trail. I didn't think I'd done anything wrong, so I finished packing up and made my way down the trail, jacked up the suspension and drove over the hump, at which point the officer leaped out of his car and stood in front of mine with raised hand He then proceeded to give me a right dressing down about straying more than 15m from the road in a motor vehicle. Of course, I apologised profusely and promised to leave the car at the bottom should there be a next time. He drove off seemingly appeased by my apologies. As I was about to drive off, my headlights revealed an impression in the hump that looked suspiciously like it had been made by the front of a certain police car. My guess is that he'd tried to follow me up the trail but didn't understand the special nature of the Citroen hydraulic suspension system!

GS, back in the day we had a red GS estate after our Ami 6 then Ami 8 estates, later an XM petrol turbo estate then an XM 2.5 diesel turbo estate.
Suspension frightened most garages but it's not that complicated if u kno what you are doing. We had a local guru who was a hydropneumatic geek, amazinf bloke.

 

[JQB]

The suspension was also good when changing wheels. Raise the suspension to the highest setting, place prop at appropriate jacking position, lower to lowest position and the wheel comes off the ground with no scissor or trolley jack required... which calls for another ditty: The day before I sailed for the South Atlantic, I was told to park the car on the parade ground at HMS Drake. I told the Officer of the Day at the time that I'd be sailing for the Falklands the next day, wouldn't be back for over six months and so perhaps somewhere less likely to need to be clear of cars might be better? Anyway, the OOD said that my car pass was valid only for the parade ground and that I must park there. Fast forward six months or so and I return to find my car has gone. So I report it stolen to the OOD (different day, different OOD), who checked and told me it had been towed almost a kilometre to another car park. I protested, citing the original OOD's orders and said I'd hold MoD responsible for any damage.
Now those who've owned a GS or GSA are probably ahead of me on this, but the suspension isn't the only unusual feature: the handbrake on these cars operates on the front wheels. When towing cars, the usual practice was to lift the car by the rear wheels as the handbrake would normally lock the rears. So, they'd lifted my car by the rear wheels and dragged the car (with the fronts locked by the handbrake) almost a kilometre. Needless to say, both front tyres were badly damaged, with one being so bad it couldn't even be driven to the nearest tyre centre. Thankfully, the suspension system made swapping the worst tyre for the spare relatively easy, allowing me to drive the 3½ miles to the tyre centre! MoD came up with the usual "you park at your own risk, even if MoD are negligent" and it was prudent not to push the issue...

Handbrakes on our GS and XMs were very doubtfull and never trusted on hills.

 

[JQB]

I bought a caravan and the bloke gave me the BX with it as he had taken delivery of a new car and he just wanted shut of it. Nothing wrong with it apart from being a bit weird.

I loved playing with the suspension just to see peoples faces when it reared up.

Very handy in floods taking our daughter 10 miles to school every day with any heavy ish causing flooding.

 

[JQB]

True ....particular issue for the Peak District is it's pretty much surrounded on all sides by large conurbations
Manchester
Sheffield
Derby
Stoke
Leeds

So all those heavily populated areas pouring into a relatively small area .

And a cousin of mine lives in Glossop

 

[JQB]

Very handy in floods taking our daughter 10 miles to school every day with any heavy ish causing flooding.

So that'll be "heavy ish RAIN"

 

[Nabsim]

Very good point, but his agents would sting u for £s. It's all about the bottom line for the business just like any other.

This is the problem, land should be available for normal people to use. Having huge hunting estates these days is just wrong. Something amis when foreign nationals and company’s own huge areas of the U.K. but all we see is no access, or private property. Don’t forget all the land was stolen from the people by William the Conqueror. All these groups for anti-slavery, Black Lives Matter etc but none for normal people who have always been downtrodden in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland

 

[Nabsim]

True ....particular issue for the Peak District is it's pretty much surrounded on all sides by large conurbations
Manchester
Sheffield
Derby
Stoke
Leeds

So all those heavily populated areas pouring into a relatively small area .

I know exactly what you mean but people should have access. We always see it’s the idiots EHU spoil it but the powers at be aren’t concerned about them. If they were they would catch them.

 

[mistericeman]

I know exactly what you mean but people should have access. We always see it’s the idiots EHU spoil it but the powers at be aren’t concerned about them. If they were they would catch them.

I agree in principle about access ....
however ...
Unfettered access will cause immense problems in the Peak District ...
There are simply too many NEDS surrounding it
Even as things are now there are many areas with problems
Sadly many many people act in a selfish manner causing issues .
If the peaks are opened up it WILL cause bedlam .

 

[Fisherman]

I know exactly what you mean but people should have access. We always see it’s the idiots EHU spoil it but the powers at be aren’t concerned about them. If they were they would catch them.

On my two visits to the Peak District there were already to many people there. The whole point in heading out to rural areas is to enjoy the environment. Whilst doing some of the hills near Castleton there were so many people up there it was like a busy street in in a large town. We had to queue to descend and ascend some parts. The Lake District is the same when doing Catsbells near Keswick there was a Congo line all the way from the bottom to the top. The carparks were full, leading to some irresponsible selfish parking, by car owners.
But I do agree there should be a controlled provision for overnight parking.
But it’s important that it’s limited and controlled. Simply doing what Scarborough and other places did won’t work.

 

[Nabsim]

On my two visits to the Peak District there were already to many people there. The whole point in heading out to rural areas is to enjoy the environment. Whilst doing some of the hills near Castleton there were so many people up there it was like a busy street in in a large town. We had to queue to descend and ascend some parts. The Lake District is the same when doing Catsbells near Keswick there was a Congo line all the way from the bottom to the top. The carparks were full, leading to some irresponsible selfish parking, by car owners.
But I do agree there should be a controlled provision for overnight parking.
But it’s important that it’s limited and controlled. Simply doing what Scarborough and other places did won’t work.

Places like Castleton have always been heaving long before the vans got there. Cars and coaches have been packing out towns and villages for many years. I lived in the area for 40 years until recently and tourism is a nightmare all over. That doesn’t mean people should be stopped though, it means it needs better organisation than saying no

 

[Fisherman]

Places like Castleton have always been heaving long before the vans got there. Cars and coaches have been packing out towns and villages for many years. I lived in the area for 40 years until recently and tourism is a nightmare all over. That doesn’t mean people should be stopped though, it means it needs better organisation than saying no

I never stated that we should be stopped. I quite clearly stated we should be able to WC but in a controlled manner. Simply saying come here and WC would be disastrous and lead to what we have seen in Scarborough.

 

[Nabsim]

I never stated that we should be stopped. I quite clearly stated we should be able to WC but in a controlled manner. Simply saying come here and WC would be disastrous and lead to what we have seen in Scarborough.

I wasn’t accusing you of anything, replied to you as the busy street comment was relevant to what I was saying

 

[Fisherman]

I wasn’t accusing you of anything, replied to you as the busy street comment was relevant to what I was saying

I had already agreed with your comment even stating.

On my two visits to the Peak District there were already to many people there. The whole point in heading out to rural areas is to enjoy the environment. Whilst doing some of the hills near Castleton there were so many people up there it was like a busy street in in a large town. We had to queue to descend and ascend some parts. The Lake District is the same when doing Catsbells near Keswick there was a Congo line all the way from the bottom to the top. The carparks were full, leading to some irresponsible selfish parking, by car owners.
But I do agree there should be a controlled provision for overnight parking.
But it’s important that it’s limited and controlled. Simply doing what Scarborough and other places did won’t work.

But this is a difficult way of communication.

 

[mistericeman]

Places like Castleton have always been heaving long before the vans got there. Cars and coaches have been packing out towns and villages for many years. I lived in the area for 40 years until recently and tourism is a nightmare all over. That doesn’t mean people should be stopped though, it means it needs better organisation than saying no

40 years ago there wasn't the 'entitlement ' that folks have now ...

Sadly the addition of some facilities WONT deal with the way some folks behave ...
Education AND prosecution of the consequences of none acceptable behaviour is needed ...

I'm afraid we just don't have the resources OR the desire to do that .

And to be honest,
I firmly beleive any loosening of wild camping in the Peak District national Park will be disastrous without a huge amount of enforcement .
I really really don't want to see things get any worse than they already are .

 

[trevskoda]

This is the problem, land should be available for normal people to use. Having huge hunting estates these days is just wrong. Something amis when foreign nationals and company’s own huge areas of the U.K. but all we see is no access, or private property. Don’t forget all the land was stolen from the people by William the Conqueror. All these groups for anti-slavery, Black Lives Matter etc but none for normal people who have always been downtrodden in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland

Being a count i shall have a word with the king next time we are out hawking.