What's up with the UK?

1960,s 70,s and early 80,s no aires . cant remember the year they started but in the 60,s 70,s early 80,s they didnt really like m,homes .
mind we travelled in alsorts of vehicles vw splitties , converted buses etc .
not all campsites were awkward but lots were.
mind there certainly was a lot of vw campers with malibu surfboards on top from uk then as well.
just following the coast around brittany then france ,spain ,portugal then across to morocco.
plus lots of hippy,s there as well.
 
i have a vague memory of staying a night once on a camping municipal football stadium . bleak kind of place . we probably spent about 4 years in France ,had a squat for about 18 months ,rest of the time we wild camped , but we didn't call it that .had very little bother, got moved on by the cops from that lake at the end of Gorge du Verdun , along with about 30 other vans , but to be fair ,it was the height of the season ,the camping was just over the road , we were there about 8 weeks and there was a large ''camping sauvage interdit '' sign ,first i'd ever seen . cops were friendly enough but adamant, so we left without a fuss ,many were drunk but the flics said they didn't care just ''allez vites!!''
 
I remember when I was young, playing in the street, there was always some miserable sods who insisted on telling you to “play up your own end” or similar.
A few weeks ago, we were in Thetford by the river and some children were playing in the river, meanwhile, on the opposite bank was a man, watching and looking disapprovingply with his hands on his hips. ( He or someone wrote to the paper next day complaining about this)
These are just two examples, but, with this seemingly common British attitude, the UK will never have the same relaxed outlook as the rest of Europe to people enjoying themselves.
Regretfully so true they need to get a life
 
i was told by a frenchman that the concept of aires was bought in after WW11 to encourage mixing between the french themselves as they were very provincial and that fracture was found during the war thus by encouraging mixing the regions became more integrated,
over ten years ago i saw a french policeman dealing with travellers while we were on the aire at honfleur the travellers had set up camp over the weekend on the lidl car park on the corner, we first saw the gendarme talking to the store manager he went over to the travellers & basically pointed to his watch telling them they had to go couldn’t hear the details but just under an hour later he reappears with a JCB behind him within 5 mins the caravans were loaded & they moved out, the point not being whether this action was right or wrong but that everyone knew that the gendarme would carry out the action he’d threatened,
 
If it says no camping or no overnight sleeping on a car park dont stop the night some of us are our own worst enemy the more people that brake that rule the more height barriers will go up we have all seen it happen more and more over the years a rant I know but yet again one of the best spot ever in cornwall just got a total ban for motorhomes I'm gutted🤬
 
That’s the problem with the UK. If your doing something the council or govt dont like, they ban it or legislate against it. No thoughts on how to offer an alternative solution.
 
Police here cannot move travelers on as there is always one or two about to have a baby, or with a infant, human rights kick in and they know how to work the sys.
 
Trev motorhoming has taken off in the last ten years.
I tend to think that some catch up is needed.
There are some good things happening up here.
The government makes billions from this industry.
look how much more thay could take it all campers were forced on to sites . As they say if you want to have fun you gotta pay for the ride
 
If it says no camping or no overnight sleeping on a car park dont stop the night some of us are our own worst enemy the more people that brake that rule the more height barriers will go up we have all seen it happen more and more over the years a rant I know but yet again one of the best spot ever in cornwall just got a total ban for motorhomes I'm gutted🤬

Where would that be?
 
Big problem with campers is they stop in bad places, ie in front of hotels houses facing the sea, village car parks with maybe only a few bays, then they get the deck chairs and tables plus a barby out and then complain about folks kicking up a stink. 🤔
 
Big problem with campers is they stop in bad places, ie in front of hotels houses facing the sea, village car parks with maybe only a few bays, then they get the deck chairs and tables plus a barby out and then complain about folks kicking up a stink. 🤔
Yerbut , but ,but, it's perfectly ok if you take them out of the car boot ,sometimes they even get flask and butties out and pore tea leaves on the ground .I even saw a bloke walk to the woods for a pp .the car park owner will put 4 ft hight
barriers in , who will they blame next .innit.
 
Bowgie inn car park looking over crantock best sunsets ever
 
this time last year we were on the beach at punta umbría about a dozen vans and at the weekend couple of hundred cars there are couple of beach bars but most of the family’s had gazebos & bbqs on the beach most of the day you could see people crossing the road to the sand dunes openly carrying loo rolls obviously people always need a loo,
if you have on board facilities you are in a different situation in our case i need to use services every 5 days but over in portugal we were on a surfers beach took the dog for a walk went to go in a caned area and a guy called out & said that’s the toilet area they all had old day van campers or unconverted vans so just nominated an area,
 
Dear Wilcampers,

I'm sure that you, like me, have become increasingly frustrated with the increasing number of signs prohibiting overnight camping/parking. I've long wondered why the British psyche is so different from the French in this respect. It's almost as if it's now on the school curriculum - a module in how to keep camper vans at bay. Whilst the French have a contrary module - how to welcome campervanners with open arms.

I've now decided to start writing to car park owners to ask why the prohibition. Started with a local wildlife trust who have just erected a height barrier over their car park - for no reason I can think of. If that place was in France, it would be the perfect stopover.

Maybe mass letter (email) writing will help effect some sort of dent in this cancer?

Angry from Winscombe (aka Richard)
I am 69 years of age and am glad that I am coming to the end of my motorhoming in the next few years due to age.I am fed up of being included in those that constantly abuse stopovers and so tar us all with the same brush.I have been abroad many times and yes we are treated so differently there particularly in France.It is a pleasure to tour there and use the aires provided as they have a very positive attitude towards us.However I have personally seen French motorhomers tipping toilet waste in the sea and on land on numerous occasions so it isnt just us Brits that are guilty apparently.....will it change in the future that acts like this will stop...I dont think so.As regards the proposed Scottish aires I very very much doubt they will be run as the French FREE aire system...in true British fashion they will used as a cash cow by local authorities and so yet again they will put up with us in exchange for us being fleeced...that is the Brit way...there is a sign at the viewpoint at the Bridge of Orchy that clearly states that all are welcome to stop and use the tarmaced viewpoint BUT NOT MOTORHOMES by order of the highland council..that is the attitude we are up against and no matter how much we carp on about how we are treated things will never alter .....so to get back to the beginning of this missive I am glad I am not at the beginning of motorhoming having had seen the best
 
Last post is 100% true, when i was young we had a we house in Islandmagee, the harbour was free and we left a small boat on the upper sand bank, nop you cannot and have to pay, lough neagh was free to, now a launching fee there also, i remember yellow lines and parking meters coming to Belfast, yep more money, if they ever have a charge for farting im buggered.
 

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