I can see why we will never have Aires in the UK

Billy

Billy

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Location
Portsmouth
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T6 Ocean 204 4Motion
Our local council car park has recently been taken over by the local traveling fraternity or can I can I say Gypsies? This is not unusual, as this area has been used by them most years and they leave kindly a £1,000+ clean up bill for my local council which includes building rubble, toilet waste etc. However my main worry is each year they seem to be ditching the caravans and using motorhomes and this time I would say 75% were luxury big whites ( all on Irish plates of course) If this continues I can see more and more councils clamping down on overnight parking in this country and more height restrictions going up at beauty spots and car parks.
 
Billy said:
Our local council car park has recently been taken over by the local traveling fraternity or can I can I say Gypsies? This is not unusual, as this area has been used by them most years and they leave kindly a £1,000+ clean up bill for my local council which includes building rubble, toilet waste etc. However my main worry is each year they seem to be ditching the caravans and using motorhomes and this time I would say 75% were luxury big whites ( all on Irish plates of course) If this continues I can see more and more councils clamping down on overnight parking in this country and more height restrictions going up at beauty spots and car parks.
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As long as the height limit is not less than 2m, it has got to be a good thing.


Follow my blog: www.au-revoir.eu
 
Absolute scum of the earth, we had them on a local playing field in May and you would not believe what they left behind and what the poor council workers had to deal with in the clean up and yes many of these were motorhomes as well
 
Probably the change to big whites related to the changes in Driving liscences related to Towing limits.
 
They completely trashed Gwrych Castle near Abergele when it fell into disuse early 2000’s. Ripped all the lead off the roofs and the marble off the feature 52 step staircase. So the place is a ruin now, but the castle trust are trying to tidy it up and they are making parts of it safe for visitors.

http://www.castlewales.com/gwrych.html

Well worth a visit if you are in the area, have a Google to find out more about it.
 
Moped robbers running amok, fly tipping endemic, pensioners beaten half to death in their beds, if your burgled you’ll get a photocopied letter about victim support. After 60 years I’m seriously thinking of moving overseas, Austria, Slovenia maybe, anywhere with law & order!
 
Wongo said:
Moped robbers running amok, fly tipping endemic, pensioners beaten half to death in their beds, if your burgled you’ll get a photocopied letter about victim support. After 60 years I’m seriously thinking of moving overseas, Austria, Slovenia maybe, anywhere with law & order!
Click to expand...

Be safer to walk the streets of Lebanon, than London...
Voted Cons last time, but Theresa Mays performance in government has been appalling.
She’s needs to go.
 
Don’t think it’s a political issue but the Tories opposed ID cards which would help.
 
Cutbacks to police and a legal system which benefits from arguing human rights has brought about unwelcome changes. Too many flout the law and London seems to be in the news daily for all the wrong reasons. Don't know the answer but we need a well resourced police force or it will only get worse.
 
What's needed is a big bomb full of common sense, kick all this left wing minded B/S in the head. Get teachers teaching and not brain washing, bring back industry, law and order will return with self respect in working and supporting one's self. So unlike the millions of lay abouts seen dragging their unloved children around any town centre. Let police, police. Promote the right people for the right jobs and not because they fit the latest PC crap. I have never known this country so divided, young having the old, left v right. All promoted over the years to mask the actions of totally useless political parties and government. Also much needed is a complete overall of the welfare system.
 
Getting back to the OP... we do have Aires in this country and they are on the increase.

On the subject of travellers, it has been a problem going back hundreds of years, not a recent phenomenon. When I was growing up on the bombed out streets of London encampments were everywhere, so was the rubbish and filth, and the problem goes even further back, at the end of the nineteenth century Irish travellers produced my Grandfather :shocked

Please can we steer clear of politics, other than oblique references, it's not what this forum is about.
 
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Amarillo said:
Hasn't crime been falling for the past two or three decades?


Follow my blog: www.au-revoir.eu
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Politics ignored, they were falling but not any longer sadly.

Some types of crime are indeed falling but many (such as violent crime) are rising these days.

The latest police figures for the 12 months to September (2017) from 44 forces show:

  • 68,968 robbery offences, up 29%
  • 138,045 sex offences, up 23%
  • 37,443 knife crime offences, up 21%
  • 1,291,405 violent crime offences, up 20%

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42815768
 
The CL sites of the CMC and CCC are underused but available to those who join either club. Having used several I think they provide another good facility.
 
I also think that travellers aside there are several factors that result in us not getting aires.

UK folks are generally getting more selfish and disrespectful of our shared spaces. Everywhere I look people leave a mess, it isnt just travellers (although their mess is usually something quite horrible to behold). Any beauty spot after a sunny day will be covered in litter, sometimes whole campsites left behind.

Costs in the UK often result in aires being unattractively priced if they were private, there isnt much desire with tight budgets for councils to put some in place (although some are allowing you to park overnight now).

Constant articles of late and perceptions that motorhomes are bad (not just travellers). Residents generally seem to consider them a blight not a boost. NIMBY is a very British concept I think. We like renewal energy, campervans, etc as long as its nowhere near where we live.

There is a perception that there isn't space, one I don't think is based on facts. The reality is that 2% of the UKs land mass is built upon... but because we live in that 2% we perceive its all built on.

The closest Ive seen is the likes of Dartmoor Halfway Inn, a pub with a campsite bolted on. This is a setup I am really loving the more I find. Late check in possible, usually affordable and food if you need it. More pubs with stopovers would get my money ;)
 
Digger said:
The CL sites of the CMC and CCC are underused but available to those who join either club. Having used several I think they provide another good facility.
Click to expand...
That is very true the CCC CS sites are really good as a general rule and very affordable too. Because the clubs hide them from non members sadly they are a resource often under utilised.
 
MattBW said:
I also think that travellers aside there are several factors that result in us not getting aires.

UK folks are generally getting more selfish and disrespectful of our shared spaces. Everywhere I look people leave a mess, it isnt just travellers (although their mess is usually something quite horrible to behold). Any beauty spot after a sunny day will be covered in litter, sometimes whole campsites left behind.

Costs in the UK often result in aires being unattractively priced if they were private, there isnt much desire with tight budgets for councils to put some in place (although some are allowing you to park overnight now).

Constant articles of late and perceptions that motorhomes are bad (not just travellers). Residents generally seem to consider them a blight not a boost. NIMBY is a very British concept I think. We like renewal energy, campervans, etc as long as its nowhere near where we live.

There is a perception that there isn't space, one I don't think is based on facts. The reality is that 2% of the UKs land mass is built upon... but because we live in that 2% we perceive its all built on.

The closest Ive seen is the likes of Dartmoor Halfway Inn, a pub with a campsite bolted on. This is a setup I am really loving the more I find. Late check in possible, usually affordable and food if you need it. More pubs with stopovers would get my money ;)
Click to expand...

Agree, to the comment on UK folks, we are new to 'free/wild' camping but pride ourselves on leaving no trace behind. However, there is one major difference between inconsiderate an motor-homer and the traveller. Travellers will actively remove obstacles, cut locks and break barriers to gain access to where they want to stay.

..me..
 
MattBW said:
Politics ignored, they were falling but not any longer sadly.

Some types of crime are indeed falling but many (such as violent crime) are rising these days.

The latest police figures for the 12 months to September (2017) from 44 forces show:

  • 68,968 robbery offences, up 29%
  • 138,045 sex offences, up 23%
  • 37,443 knife crime offences, up 21%
  • 1,291,405 violent crime offences, up 20%

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42815768
Click to expand...

I agree that's a mixed picture and there are some apparent blips such as knife crime in London (but I'm just going from media reports on that, which might be crap for all I know). But the police reported crime data is a very poor indicator of long-run trends, as it reports numbers of crimes logged by the police (which have jumped upwards as the police have got much better at recording crimes in the last few years, while the public has become more likely to report them - both good things). But it's a notoriously poor indicator of the underlying levels of crime - which is hard to define, let alone to measure.

For anyone interested, Full Fact has published several well-balanced (IMO) briefings on this:
https://fullfact.org/crime/crime-england-and-wales/

Trouble is, the public's impressions of crime tend to come either from headline reports like the police figures which are very subjective, and/or reports of a celebrity getting their watch nicked, and/or what they happened to see in their particular neighbourhood. Criminal damage or antisocial behaviour at a traveller site next to the roadside is visible to almost the whole community, while much worse crimes go on out of sight of 'the concerned public'.
 
Digger said:
The CL sites of the CMC and CCC are underused but available to those who join either club. Having used several I think they provide another good facility.
Click to expand...
We have stayed on some truly wonderful CLs and CSs over the years, and some as low as a fiver a night. A bit different from French aires, but equally as nice in their own way. It's worth joining one or other club, or both, just to have access to these little sites.
 
This weekend I logged my 132nd night sleeping in my Cali, not a bad tally since I only got it back in January 2017.

My 132nd night overall, was also my 101st night wild/free camping. I generally use the park4night app, and read the reviews. Leave no trace, and keep a log of pros/cons to each location, as I do return to good ones.

So, IME finding somewhere to stop-over for a night hasn’t been an issue at all. Most hight-restrictions are 2.1m, and this is one of the main reasons I picked the Cali after all, and why I also have a towbar mounted bike rack.

There are only a few aires here in Northern Ireland, neither that great IMO..... and generally only used by MOHOs anyway. However, riverside/trailhead/Coastal carparks they’re a plenty.

I travel all over Ireland, and must say that the number of “traveller” camps I come across are much reduced over the past decade. Most have turned into settlements. It seems most Irish travellers have ended up in England! When I take the late night ferry from Dublin-Holyhead it seems the majority of the passengers are travellers (as they don’t fly back and forth, due to ID-paperwork issues.)

Here’s where I stopped last night, Keem Bay - Achill Island.

https://instagram.com/p/Bj2tN25ApBX/
 
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Velma's Dad said:
Would one of them be in Londonderry?

(Sorry. And it would be the Derry-Londonderry Aire, I know).

:embarrased
Click to expand...


No, it would be in Derry .... the Derry aire ...

Well, someone had to reach bottom :sad
 
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