‘Staycationers’ could be allowed to stay in some council car parks around Argyll and Bute, a report has revealed.
Links to maps which suggest stays on Helensburgh waterfront and the centre of Kilcreggan are included in proposals to ensure informal campers using the area during the spring and summer do so responsibly.
Other car parks listed on user-generated maps shared by council officials include beside the B833 in Clynder, Whistlefield, the A817 Haul Road, Arrochar and laybys on the A82 beside Loch Lomond.
The move would represent a U-turn by the council, which last year issued a statement saying motorhomes and campervans should stick to official sites, saying this would support the local economy and protect health.
But now an official has said the possibility of allowing motorhomes to stay overnight in at least some of the authority’s car parks is being examined.
The practice is not currently allowed in any of the council’s car parks, and any proposal to overturn that rule would require councillors’ approval.
Camping, motorhomes and caravans became more popular last year after public health restrictions were enforced due to Covid-19.
A report on informal camping will be discussed by the Helensburgh and Lomond community planning group on Thursday.
Craig Wilson, economic growth officer with the council, said: “Over recent years people have been holidaying differently.
“Most notably, we have seen that there has been a steady increase in the number of people camping informally, in tents and camper vans, in many parts of Argyll and Bute.
“This situation was exacerbated last summer following the easing of lockdown restrictions in July across the UK, with many places and local communities experiencing an increase in visitors informally camping.
“Tourism is exceptionally important to Argyll and Bute’s local economy and also our way of life. The council wishes to welcome as many visitors as sustainably possible, to enjoy the local places we are fortunate to call home.
“This custom supports many services and facilities we currently rely on, as our population on its own cannot sustain them.”
His report will be considers lists online maps created by motorhome users and campers: Scottish Motorhome Campervan Adventures, Park4night.com, Motorhome Maps and Search for Sites – which last year refused to remove a 4* listing for privately owned land in Cove after a request by its owners, and in fact has now upgraded it to 5*
It cites Forestry and Land Scotland’s ‘Stay the Night Scheme’ which was piloted last year – but does not say that the pilot project was abandoned after a few weeks.
He warns that last year’s situation was unique, but likely to continue into 2021.
Most visitors respected the area but complaints included litter, illegal disposal of toilet waste, inconsiderate parking and antisocial behaviour.
“Sometimes the main issue can simply be the volume and frequency of people using a particular area, week after week,” he said.
“We are currently investigating the practicalities and regulatory aspects to see if it might be appropriate for motorhomes to stay overnight in some suitably identified council car parks, similar to the Forestry and Land Scotland’s ‘Stay the Night’ scheme which took place in 2020.
“If we are able to develop a suitable proposal this would need to go to elected members for consideration and approval as appropriate.
“We are finalising a reporting form/consultation questionnaire which will be promoted shortly to communities, landowners, etc which will help document community experience of informal camping.
“It has also been identified that clearer guidance and collated resources for businesses, landowners and community organisations could help them better consider increasing overnight motorhome parking provision, were they are interested in doing so.”
There is already a serious shortage of parking in Kilcreggan with workers from Coulport and Faslane leaving cars overnight and weekends, and when the Waverly returns the situation will be chaotic. There are plenty of properly serviced sites and penny pinching camper vaners should not be allowed to use council car parks. I am an ex camper vaner and never used a car park, it’s not necessary.
So what you saying is that you was a penny pinching campervaner got knows what you where driving pinching pennies
It has got nothing to do with ‘penny pinching’ campervans. As a Touring Motorhome owner, I do not always want to be ‘tied down’ for a few days in a ‘properly serviced caravan site’, where I would NOT be using all their facikities, but have to pay same price as those who do.
I, like many of my fellow Touring mitorhome owners, want to be able to find a town or small village, park either in or on edge off, for 24/48 hrs, look around, SPEND in local community/economy and then move on to somewhere else.
As of 30 Sept 20 there were 386k registered motorhomes st DVLA Swansea.
I joined CAMpRA, http://www.campra.org.uk This group has gained 15k+ in just two years. It is campaigning for ‘proper Aire type facilities ‘ across the UK, either small new sites, with waste /black water Disposal point and fresh water refill, or just a Motorhome. Service Point, ( this could be as simple as an outside Chemical disposal point being added to a toilet block in a council car park), Scotland is more accommodating to this than England, especually up in the Highlands.- Local communities haveeven taken over council carparks with toilets by a Treaty, and the fees charged help towards the upkeep of the toilets.
Council carparks are usuually in towns and villages. (Some with toilets).
Allowing motorhomes to ‘ overnight sleep’ in their carparks for a reasonable fee (£5-10 ngt), would be extra Council income.
Many motoromers want the freedom to tour and be near a village, not be tied to booking a minimum of 2/3 nights on a campsites distance away. They will spend in the local shops, cafes, attractions etc. They need to buy food. They need somewhere to responsibly dispose of rubbish and black and grey water. Motorhomers bring in much needed income to an area.
This is debatable! Rather than make ogres of “campervanners”;and “motorhomers” we should be going all out to encourage them to these parts. It could well be argued that the cars parked ( or abandoned) in the car parks by CSB workers are more of a nuisance than a benefit to the local economy, witness the cars abandoned in Kilcreggan when these workers take their annual leave in the summer, just when the Waverley season kicks in. Other, perhaps, more enlightened, areas around the country are straining their sinews to encourage tourism to the benefit of their local businesses. Perhaps we should be encouraging this viewpoint by engaging the A&B council ( re- opening the public toilets would be a start) and the local trust, who own the foreshore “ for the benefit of the community”. Over the last few years I have visited the Baltic states and Scandinavia in my motor home and found their attitude to this form of vacation both enlightened and beneficial to their local economies.
I have no issue with campervaners and am certainly not trying to make ogres of them having been one myself for many years. Regarding your suggestions:- We have already engaged Argyll and Bute Council, the Community Develpoment Trust has produced plans and held public meetings, we have had discussions with the Kilcreggan Trust who own the shoreline, and we have engaged with the MoD at Coulport and Faslane. In short we have already explored every avenue to find ways of improving the parking situation all to no avail. The point is that there are insufficient parking spaces in the village and until this is resiolved we should not be encouraging camrervans to Kilcreggan to the inconvenience and annoyance of local residents.
i get fed up with this…”they should use sites” rhetoric. Sites need to be booked & often they insist on minimum of 7 days and last year the campsites were filled to the gunnels. Have a look at http://www.Campra.org.uk and let’s get this country some sensible solutions in the form of European type Aires and stop restricting peoples liberties. Build the facilites, charge a reasonable overnight fee, and people will come and spend money in the local businesses.
I agree with Alistair Lamont. Reopen toilets, what is the ‘local seafrobt trust doing’. Some of their Highland local communities took over their clised toilets by treaty from councils, refurbed them, addesd motorhone facilities and charged a fee , which goes towards the upkeep of same.
Why would any workers from coulport leave cars in the village? Given that there is ample parking in RNAD 900 spaces.
They come over on the ferry from Gourock. They buy a cheap car between 3 or 4 of them in a syndicate and leave it parked in Kilcreggan, saves waiting for busses and missing ferries. There just a few but it takes up spaces at night and weekends.
I wonder how much some people in motor homes really do spend locally; I know people who stock up at a supermarket before leaving home and contribute absolutely nothing to the local economy, just cause annoyance.
When I am travelling with my Campervan, I stop at local attractions, pay for parking, go into to shops, cafes/tearooms and local attractions. Not all campervanners and motorhomers want everything for free and most are responsible, leaving no trace. The vast majority should not be penalised due to the actions of a minority that as you say “just cause annoyance”. Go to http://www.Campra.org.uk to see the good work that is being done to promote Aires in the U.K to bring us similar facilities as European Aires and to benefit communities everywhere.
I think this is a very bad idea to allow motor homes to stay overnight in any of Argyll’s car parks. If it is allowed in a number of designated locations, camper van users will believe or say they believe that they can park in any car park or layby in Argyll. This would be a very big mistake to allow this and lead to pollution & litter problems. Designated camp sites only, where proper facilities are provided. This is already a nuicance/problem, even when it’s not allowed.
If the signs are clear why would this be the case. Most cam and motor-homers are responsible people. Please don’t tar us with the brush of a minority behaviour. Check http://www.campra.or.uk for the facts and see how this can benefit struggling local businesses. Personally , I will challenge anyone who does not respect the environment they are in.
Been a motor homer for many years and we spend a lot of money in local shops ,cafes ,restaurants and local supermarkets as we are usually away for several weeks at a time and both use sites a free camp not for cheap night stays but for convenience because there is not always a site where we want to stay and from talking to fellow campers the majority feel the same and very few leave unwanted rubbish again it’s usually a minority that does the damage
Doh, can you support your comment with evidence? If yiu have been in a motorcaravan you will realise that storage space is very limited and fridges small it is impossible to stock up for more than the first 2 to 3 daus when touring.
A recent survey shows that the average daily spend in local shops is £47. 97% purchase food from local shops when touring, 82% tour all year with an average 63 nights away.
There are now over 386,000 UK motorcaravans.
You can see the full survey results from 8956 responses on
https://campra.org.uk/download/campra-motorcaravan-survey-2020/
Yes I have, thanks, but I’ve spent more time stuck behind them. Some are huge. Some are well and courteously driven, others aren’t, last year especially a lot were hired and looked as if the driver was inexperienced.
But that is a different point it was your comment :
“I know people who stock up at a supermarket before leaving home and contribute absolutely nothing to the local economy, just cause annoyance”.
That I was questioning as evidence proves this to be a myth and practically impossible for motorcaravan owners to stock up for the full trip before leaving home as you must know if you have in fact been inside one.
In September we spent a month away 3 weeks of that in Scotland and we spent in local shops and had a couple meals out, fish and chips from local chip shop, ice creams and coffee in shops. We bought diesel and lpg from garages. All supporting the local economy.
All we want is somewhere safe to park close to a village or town where we can pop out to the shops, have a meal and a drink without the worry of driving miles back to a campsite and we are looking forward to the time when it is safe to do this again.
I like most motorhome users have a budget on spending when on holiday. £50 a day not including fuel/campsite/ferry costs is ours. It might not seem a lot but when you take into consideration we aim for 3 x 6 week holiday a year it adds up. We also tend to spend in local shops where you find different supplies. One place I have visited which has an ideal car park is Inveraray which I noticed last summer were trying to encourage ideas to increase visitor spending since the lack of coach parties. 3 or 4 vans a night spending £50 each soon adds up, not to mention those amongst us that travel for shorter periods and splash out on gifts for themselves and family. Also as I have to work in peak summer all our trips are out of season often when many campsites are closed
Lol moan about campervan owners not spending then moan how big they are then moan about how they are driven. I doubt very much some people have even looked inside one let alone stopped in one. The point here is to look at opening up facilities for motor homes not slag them off with your own personal thoughts.
Tolerance, understanding and solutions that are acceptable to all parties is what’s needed… This will be the middle ground, but we should be showing some humanity, not everyone can have it their way all the time, be gracious in accepting this and we can all come out of it feeling like we have got somewhere
As A motorhomer from England we welcome any area’s that would allow a one, two night stays as we often find sites requiring a minimum of 3 + nights stay which means we have to move on to another area, this means us spending our money elsewhere.
I would like England to adopt a similar in idea but we have nimbies down here too.
We are always willing to pay and don’t want to stop for nothing. Plus we always use a local pub, restaurant to eat most nights as we don’t plan on cooking to much on our holidays.
Neil Check out http://www.campra.org.uk the website for CAMpRA (Campaign for Real Aires in the UK).
If you like what you see, join us via our Facebook link from the home page. (this will also be your logon to our Forum) here we deal with things in more details.
The national park are already allowing people from England to live in Tarbet car park .when we asked why they where there we where told they where nomads and did we need any work doing. Last week we where stopped from sitting on the benches by police ,when we asked about the travellers living in the vans we where told in no uncertain terms that it was none of our business. Some nights there are 5 or 6 vans in the park,and I mean vans not motorhomes.
I feel that this small community has been put at risk with no risk assessment done as to the effect of this on us.
So we see the new name for a certain group of people is ‘Nomads’. That way they can not claim “discrimination”. But they are also why Councils have car park Height Barriers. IF and WHEN, they move on, under no reason of the imagination should ANYONE put the BLAME for the ‘rubbish’ left behind, on the foot of the Touring Motor homer. Lay it firmly with you accountable Councillors. It is your business if Councillors are allowing others to destroy the countryside.
What a utter stupid and bigoted comment, how do you know they are from England? Have you approached them? Your comment is nothing to do with a couple of motor homes being parked for maybe one or two day’s it is pointed towards travellers’ or Nomads has you like to refer to them.
We are talking motor homes where you are referring to caravans. One has and engine and one is towed. It just goes to show some people have not got a clue and would be better keeping their personal views to themselves.
They told us they where nomads form England traveling .they’re word’s not mine. Apologies accepted
Ps a transit van isn’t a motorhome or a caravan
People who jump to pre conceived conclusions should take a deep breath before calling people bigoted
So what has any of your comments got to do with the title of the post? Motorhomes you bought the word Van into the post. And I’m afraid there is no apology from me.
Comment relates to people living in local car parks didn’t expect an apology from someone who would accuse a person of bigotry without knowing them. But there ye go