Motorhome Services on Motorway Services (1 Viewer)

John & Joan

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Motorway Service Area operators are already enabled to provide facilities for Caravans and Motorhomes in their service area.

Does anyone know of any other than Tebay services.


DEPARTMENT FOR TRANSPORT
DfT Circular 01/2008

POLICY ON SERVICE AREAS AND OTHER ROADSIDE FACILITIES ON MOTORWAYS AND ALL-PURPOSE TRUNK ROADS IN ENGLAND

83. Operators may provide overnight parking facilities for caravans and motorhomes.
Facilities for the supply of fresh water, electrical hook-up and the disposal of foul and
grey water may also be provided. However, caravans and motorhomes should not be
permitted to stay on site for more than a maximum of twelve hours.
 
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John & Joan

John & Joan

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It's just over 4 years since I asked the major MSA providers for details of motorhome parking at their sites. Extra and Moto replied but didn't mention any special facilities. Road Chef and Welcome Break didn't even reply.
http://www.motorhomeparking.co.uk/mways.htm

I have contacted them all again Graham

John

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paulmold

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Taken from www.motorwayservicesonline.co.uk


Where do caravans, motorhomes and towing vehicles park?
All new services are required to have a designated area for caravans and motorhomes. At older, smaller services, this might not be available, in which case it is usually advised that you use the HGV parking areas. Towing vehicles should always use these spaces.

The Caravan Club published this document (in 2009, so some info may be out of date)....

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eddie

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Trouble is with these is the cost! I am biased as I own a campsite just two miles off Junction 25 on the M5 and the next motorway slip road off is to Taunton services.

Caravans and motorhomes are £17.00 per night. There are no facilities, the services smell of pee by the lorry/caravan section, and you have lorries and trucks in and out all night along with people walking around all night.

We charge £16.00 a night, you get a warden patrolled site, levelled gravelled hard standings, electric hook up, water, waste and loo disposal. The facilities are illuminated all night on dusk to dawn lights (as is the whole site) The toilets and showers are fully tiled with heated underfloor heating.

A simple call en route or just pull in after hours and pay in the morning so it is really simple to use sites like ours when your travelling and in my opinion safer too.

I would much rather try to get to my destination or make arrangements to stay on a site when travelling in the UK as I feel that in comparison to the French Aires we simply get ripped off using motorway services.

This also includes their fuel, food and drinks:Angry:

Eddie
 

G8WVW

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Do caravan/camp sites always meet the need?

Have to say as a member of both CC & CCC, both of which have excellent facilities for the weekend/week long stay but on many occasions all I need is a 23' x 8' piece of tarmac.

To maximise the weekend, often travel long distances on a Friday evening with aim of crashing somewhere, be mobile again at dawn to crack on with whatever's the day's activity and stay out late until well after sunset. What I often need is somewhere to arrive late without much forward planning/fuss and depart as early as I like without too much formality.

The late arrival inconvenience to the warden, locked barriers and curfew of 'sites' just add hassle or eats into my busy weekend. If the CC/CCC sites had a number of parking bays 'outside of the wire' where a debit-card swipe or text covered the cost, EHU and occasionally tap, I'd happily pay the full site fee or equivalent fee charged by motorway service stations.

I often don't need a 'holiday centre', just a place to overnight.
 

GJH

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If the CC/CCC sites had a number of parking bays 'outside of the wire' where a debit-card swipe or text covered the cost, EHU and occasionally tap, I'd happily pay the full site fee or equivalent fee charged by motorway service stations.

I doubt it would be worth their while setting up and managing such a facility.

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Daveo2006

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Trouble is with these is the cost! I am biased as I own a campsite just two miles off Junction 25 on the M5 and the next motorway slip road off is to Taunton services.

Caravans and motorhomes are £17.00 per night. There are no facilities, the services smell of pee by the lorry/caravan section, and you have lorries and trucks in and out all night along with people walking around all night.

We charge £16.00 a night, you get a warden patrolled site, levelled gravelled hard standings, electric hook up, water, waste and loo disposal. The facilities are illuminated all night on dusk to dawn lights (as is the whole site) The toilets and showers are fully tiled with heated underfloor heating.

A simple call en route or just pull in after hours and pay in the morning so it is really simple to use sites like ours when your travelling and in my opinion safer too.

I would much rather try to get to my destination or make arrangements to stay on a site when travelling in the UK as I feel that in comparison to the French Aires we simply get ripped off using motorway services.

This also includes their fuel, food and drinks:Angry:

Eddie

I feel awful Eddie , i forgot to pay :ROFLMAO:
 
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the difference here to france is they provide places for the convenience of travellers ours are sited to make money all our motorways should have free parking and toilet areas
 

magicsurfbus

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Link Removed, Saintes Maries de la Mer (Camargue) had a two tier system when we stopped there last summer. At the entrance you either drove through the main gate to a large pitch in the main campsite for a longer stay, or you went through a separate barrier into a fenced-off aire-style field for a shorter stay at a lower cost. There were a couple of tightly-packed unshaded tarmac aires elsewhere in the town, plus a long free dusty parking strip behind the beach that was prone to flooding in certain wind and tide conditions. In short, all MH tastes were catered for.

Likewise Camping Amis de la Plage at Bois Plage en Re - an aire with EHUs, service point, and an open aire shower point (ie beach shower) was sub-divided from the rest of the main campsite by a fence. Entry was by automated barrier and the (cheaper) aire ticket (around 12 Euros a night including wi-fi) didn't permit access to the main site facilities. A further level was added by the small free municipal aire over the road which had up to 45 mins free access through the barrier to the campsite's service point (which charged for water).

It's clear to me that savvy French campsite owners are realising there's a level of service between car-park style aire and full-blown campsite pitch with trimmings that many MH owners are prepared to pay a bit extra for. If some of our UK campsite proprietors woke up to that I reckon they could earn a bit extra.

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GJH

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the difference here to france is they provide places for the convenience of travellers ours are sited to make money all our motorways should have free parking and toilet areas

I've never paid to park or use toilets at MSAs in my life (first two hours free). How much extra tax would you like to pay to provide free areas above and beyond that, in order to pay the fees for the very few who actually want longer stays?
 

PP Bear

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Do caravan/camp sites always meet the need?

Have to say as a member of both CC & CCC, both of which have excellent facilities for the weekend/week long stay but on many occasions all I need is a 23' x 8' piece of tarmac.

To maximise the weekend, often travel long distances on a Friday evening with aim of crashing somewhere, be mobile again at dawn to crack on with whatever's the day's activity and stay out late until well after sunset. What I often need is somewhere to arrive late without much forward planning/fuss and depart as early as I like without too much formality.

The late arrival inconvenience to the warden, locked barriers and curfew of 'sites' just add hassle or eats into my busy weekend. If the CC/CCC sites had a number of parking bays 'outside of the wire' where a debit-card swipe or text covered the cost, EHU and occasionally tap, I'd happily pay the full site fee or equivalent fee charged by motorway service stations.

I often don't need a 'holiday centre', just a place to overnight.

Have to agree, the fact that some sites will only allow you to book a min of 2 nights at weekend, puts me off trying to simply pull in for a "sleep over" before heading on my way. It's understandable that there's a busy to run, money to be made, bookings taken and then don't arrive etc etc etc. I like the idea of overnight hard standing that could be paid for via text, access to water and waste disposal, which will allow us to pull up, rest and replenish the vehicle and simply be on our way. The usual CCTV system can monitor this and should anyone step out of line for whatever reason, you'll have their Mobil number and details to chase if required:thumb:
 

WAG2CRU

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Do caravan/camp sites always meet the need?

The late arrival inconvenience to the warden, locked barriers and curfew of 'sites' just add hassle or eats into my busy weekend. If the CC/CCC sites had a number of parking bays 'outside of the wire' where a debit-card swipe or text covered the cost, EHU and occasionally tap, I'd happily pay the full site fee or equivalent fee charged by motorway service stations.

I often don't need a 'holiday centre', just a place to overnight.

Milestone caravan park (CC affiliated) just of the A1 near Newark has several pitches which are "outside the wire" with ehu I didn't enquire at the time but, it seems set up for late arrival and early departures.

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John & Joan

John & Joan

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Many French Aires have barriers now that you have to put a credit/debit car in to pay before the barrier opens.

Club sites could use this method for an aire style parking without the need for warden intervention. Easy to enter and leave. CCTV on site could keep an eye on the area from the office.

MY original post was not about overnight parking at Motorway Services or places on the Trunk Road Network. It was to highlight that there is provision for and acceptance of provision for Bourne type facilities to be provided on Motorway Services and the Trunk Road Network.

I have not found any. My question was "does anyone know of such a provision anywhere in England?

DFT control a very small number (20) of Motorway Service Areas the majority and future provision is private. At present Moto, Welcome Break and RoadChef http://www.extraservices.co.uk/ are the ones to contact if you wish to request facilities. The first three have online contact pages. You need to email Extra direct.

The document to quote is in the first post as is the relevant section (83)

John
 
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paulmold

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Sorry if I'm thick but I don't know what you are getting at. What are 'Bourne facilities'? Tebay has an official recognised campsite attached to the service station and although owned by the services operators, it is really a commercial facility in it's own right.

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Stephen & Jeannie

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Vive la France !!!

Bourne facilities are found on aires ! It is a device that allows you to fill up with water, empty and rinse cassettes and also provide limited leccy for charging batteries !
Some charge 2 Euros but most are free !!:Cool::Cool::Cool:

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paulmold

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Thanks for the explanantion. Having never used an aire, I hadn't heard the expression before. Even 'Google' hadn't a clue until I entered 'aire' after 'bourne'.
 

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