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BBC Radio Scotland - tourism problems program
does anyone listen to Scotland Outdoors, 6.30 am on Saturday mornings? Brilliant show. This coming Sat 18th they are doing a programme about Tourism in the light of the problems this year, Particularly on Skye and the NC500. So I sent them this email below, hope it has some positive effect.
lesley
Hi Mark and Euan,
with ref to your program next week about tourism, we guess the impact of the high numbers of tourists will be discussed. One of the things will probably be the number of motorhomes/campervans and the impact on local services.
We have caravanned for many years, and switched to a motorhome over four years ago, and have noticed a huge increase in vans in that short time. While caravans mainly stay on campsites, the freedom a moho gives to ‘wild camp’ is part of its appeal, and with everything on board it’s not necessary for us to use caravan sites very often. Often caravan sites are situated well out of towns or villages, so when you are parked up there you are restricted to where you can walk to.
We have heard about the dumping of toilet waste by irresponsible campers, it is indeed reprehensible. However, there are very few facilities available for this in Scotland. We also see the increase in ‘No overnight parking’ signs.
Do you know about the system of Aires on the continent, where motor homing is big. Every town or village has an aire, a parking place for motorhomes only (no caravans), where you can park for up to two nights, empty your toilet cassette, fill up with water and dispose of or recycle your rubbish. Some offer electricity, some do not. Many of the aires are free, some in the more popular places make a charge of around 5 euros per night. There is often a charge of 2 euros to fill up with 100 litres of water, dumping of the toilet cassette is always free. The vans usually park next to each other quite happily, so an aire doesn’t take up a lot of space. Once you get over the shock of thinking it looks like a car park, it’s fine, everyone respects the privacy of others. We have been all over France in the past couple of years using aires, it is a brilliant system. The contrast between the continent and Britain is huge, what must they think of us when they come over here?
The aire is usually within walking distance of the shops, so it is ideal, and it is sort of expected that you will at least buy something locally. Some of the tourist attractions have a space set aside for mohos to park overnight in their car parks, for example at Monet’s garden at Giverny. The result is that motorhomes are welcomed around France, rather than being made to feel a nuisance. Surely there is enough spare bits of land in Scotland to provide something of this sort? Think of all the bits of waste ground on Skye for example, where such a facility would relieve the pressure on people wild camping, getting rid of waste etc.
Trying to force motorhomes to use caravan sites (which usually cost around £30 upwards per night) for facilities they neither want nor require, isn’t going to work. Motorhoming is different from caravanning. Instead of thinking or it as a problem, it is an opportunity for enterprising councils to provide what are after all quite basic facilities which would solve the problem of waste dumping, giving mohos a place to stopover, ease pressure on the roads, and would bring finance to local shops and businesses. This would be a win win situation for everyone.
Love the program by the way (we live near Arbroath)
Cheers
Lesley and David Crawford
does anyone listen to Scotland Outdoors, 6.30 am on Saturday mornings? Brilliant show. This coming Sat 18th they are doing a programme about Tourism in the light of the problems this year, Particularly on Skye and the NC500. So I sent them this email below, hope it has some positive effect.
lesley
Hi Mark and Euan,
with ref to your program next week about tourism, we guess the impact of the high numbers of tourists will be discussed. One of the things will probably be the number of motorhomes/campervans and the impact on local services.
We have caravanned for many years, and switched to a motorhome over four years ago, and have noticed a huge increase in vans in that short time. While caravans mainly stay on campsites, the freedom a moho gives to ‘wild camp’ is part of its appeal, and with everything on board it’s not necessary for us to use caravan sites very often. Often caravan sites are situated well out of towns or villages, so when you are parked up there you are restricted to where you can walk to.
We have heard about the dumping of toilet waste by irresponsible campers, it is indeed reprehensible. However, there are very few facilities available for this in Scotland. We also see the increase in ‘No overnight parking’ signs.
Do you know about the system of Aires on the continent, where motor homing is big. Every town or village has an aire, a parking place for motorhomes only (no caravans), where you can park for up to two nights, empty your toilet cassette, fill up with water and dispose of or recycle your rubbish. Some offer electricity, some do not. Many of the aires are free, some in the more popular places make a charge of around 5 euros per night. There is often a charge of 2 euros to fill up with 100 litres of water, dumping of the toilet cassette is always free. The vans usually park next to each other quite happily, so an aire doesn’t take up a lot of space. Once you get over the shock of thinking it looks like a car park, it’s fine, everyone respects the privacy of others. We have been all over France in the past couple of years using aires, it is a brilliant system. The contrast between the continent and Britain is huge, what must they think of us when they come over here?
The aire is usually within walking distance of the shops, so it is ideal, and it is sort of expected that you will at least buy something locally. Some of the tourist attractions have a space set aside for mohos to park overnight in their car parks, for example at Monet’s garden at Giverny. The result is that motorhomes are welcomed around France, rather than being made to feel a nuisance. Surely there is enough spare bits of land in Scotland to provide something of this sort? Think of all the bits of waste ground on Skye for example, where such a facility would relieve the pressure on people wild camping, getting rid of waste etc.
Trying to force motorhomes to use caravan sites (which usually cost around £30 upwards per night) for facilities they neither want nor require, isn’t going to work. Motorhoming is different from caravanning. Instead of thinking or it as a problem, it is an opportunity for enterprising councils to provide what are after all quite basic facilities which would solve the problem of waste dumping, giving mohos a place to stopover, ease pressure on the roads, and would bring finance to local shops and businesses. This would be a win win situation for everyone.
Love the program by the way (we live near Arbroath)
Cheers
Lesley and David Crawford
