Forestry Park overnight scheme in Scotland

[JamesT@Dundee]

This F&LS scheme which was started less than a month ago to alleviate the issues of too many vans and too little overnight availability has been stopped because of the selfish action of some commercial campsite operators.
Cameron McNeish explains here:

If it affects you then please contact the F&LS to register a complaint and we'll maybe get it reversed.

 

[Puddleduck]

And the address / email / telephone

Forestry and Land Scotland Head Office
1 Highlander Way
Inverness Business Park
Inverness
IV2 7GB


Email:

• enquiries@forestryandland.gov.scot
• freedomofinformation@forestryandland.gov.scot
• complaints@forestryandland.gov.scot
• media@forestryandland.gov.scot

Telephone

• General: 0300 067 6000
• Media: 0131 370 5990

I have emailed them asking if the reports are true and suggesting a CS / CL solution

 

[LesW]

The weird thing is, that the dopes running the (full) campsites think motorhomers are going to use their (full) sites.

Sheer unadulterated greed, thank goodness I have no plans to visit Scotland in the forseeable future.

 

[Otter Spotter]

This F&LS scheme which was started less than a month ago to alleviate the issues of too many vans and too little overnight availability has been stopped because of the selfish action of some commercial campsite operators.
Cameron McNeish explains here:

If it affects you then please contact the F&LS to register a complaint and we'll maybe get it reversed.

Beat me to it, I had put Camerons previous video on yesterday.see Scottish forest carparks

 

[PJGWiltshire]

Presently travelling around Scotland and have indeed been using the locations listed in the website. I note that we have until the end of August to carry on using the locations and their web site intends to review the experiment. Mention is also made that should it continue a fee of £5 per night maybe introduced. I would be happy to pay the £5 as some of the locations have been outstanding. For the the last two weeks we have managed to get a 7.5m van into car parks without any disruption to other car park users. If there was to be any complaint about MH sitting out in deck chairs and the like. No chance the midges see to that. We take all our rubbish as there are no bins even to use and we dispose of all of it at our twice weekly paid service call at a campsite. Many of the sites charge £5 for emptying the tanks refill and use of showers.
I will be writing to the FC just to highlight the benefit Of the use of the car parks. We have spent the money that we would have paid to the local shops our average daily spend on everyday items is around £20 ( midge spray £ 4.50 a pop and bottle Last two day’s ). I don’t think the site owners are behind this. If you look on the web site at the locations of the approved car parks you will not find many with commercial sites near by. I think it’s probably general forest users who are finding MH in the car oark when they walk their dogs and suspect MH will trash the location or if already trashed blame MH owners

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[Otter Spotter]

Presently travelling around Scotland and have indeed been using the locations listed in the website. I note that we have until the end of August to carry on using the locations and their web site intends to review the experiment. Mention is also made that should it continue a fee of £5 per night maybe introduced. I would be happy to pay the £5 as some of the locations have been outstanding. For the the last two weeks we have managed to get a 7.5m van into car parks without any disruption to other car park users. If there was to be any complaint about MH sitting out in deck chairs and the like. No chance the midges see to that. We take all our rubbish as there are no bins even to use and we dispose of all of it at our twice weekly paid service call at a campsite. Many of the sites charge £5 for emptying the tanks refill and use of showers.
I will be writing to the FC just to highlight the benefit Of the use of the car parks. We have spent the money that we would have paid to the local shops our average daily spend on everyday items is around £20 ( midge spray £ 4.50 a pop and bottle Last two day’s ). I don’t think the site owners are behind this. If you look on the web site at the locations of the approved car parks you will not find many with commercial sites near by. I think it’s probably general forest users who are finding MH in the car oark when they walk their dogs and suspect MH will trash the location or if already trashed blame MH owners

everyone interested should write to both addresses and try and get them to reverse their cancellation of the trial. Only by getting them to understand the need for these sites and the benefits to the wider economy will they just might reconsider and ignore the commercial site owners who are milking it at present. We also need to remind the site owners that we have long memories

 

[nicholsong]

PJGWiltshire said

'I don’t think the site owners are behind this. '

I think the wording at the end of F%LS announement for curtailing the scheme, where they say to presrve the 'sector' does pont towarde the operators of commercial entities, not to car users of the CPs.

Geoff

 

[JamesT@Dundee]

And the address / email / telephone

Forestry and Land Scotland Head Office
1 Highlander Way
Inverness Business Park
Inverness
IV2 7GB


Email:

• enquiries@forestryandland.gov.scot
• freedomofinformation@forestryandland.gov.scot
• complaints@forestryandland.gov.scot
• media@forestryandland.gov.scot

Telephone

• General: 0300 067 6000
• Media: 0131 370 5990

I have emailed them asking if the reports are true and suggesting a CS / CL solution

And the address / email / telephone

Forestry and Land Scotland Head Office
1 Highlander Way
Inverness Business Park
Inverness
IV2 7GB


Email:

• enquiries@forestryandland.gov.scot
• freedomofinformation@forestryandland.gov.scot
• complaints@forestryandland.gov.scot
• media@forestryandland.gov.scot

Telephone

• General: 0300 067 6000
• Media: 0131 370 5990

I have emailed them asking if the reports are true and suggesting a CS / CL solution

Thanks for providing this info - I was being lazy

 

[Puddleduck]

I've emailed them.

 

[nicholsong]

I think we could do no better than to forward and endorse Cameron McNeish's video to the F&LS in case they have not seen it.

I am not technically skilled enough to do it, so may I ask another member to undertake the task please.

Geoff

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[Vario814DA]

For what it's worth, that's me sent an email with my thought. Let's see what reply I receive, if any!

 

[irnbru]

Just sent my email away.

 

[PeteH]

The sound (on the Video, not my Computer) was not working, and I can`t lip read. So I still have no idea what is going on

 

[Gordie1]

Email sent

 

[g3cwi]

An FOI request to them might be interesting...

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[g3cwi]

This is also interesting:

Dirty camping and camping incompetence- the case of Glen More - parkswatchscotland

No sooner had I complimented Forest and Land Scotland on how they had opened up their car parks in Glen More to campervans (see here) than they did an about turn as a result of events on the weekend that followed (see above). FLS is now trying to close car parks in Glen More to...

parkswatchscotland.co.uk

 

[irnbru]

They've done a u turn

 

[g3cwi]

They've done a u turn

Another U turn! I wonder what is actually happening there?

 

[irnbru]

Another U turn! I wonder what is actually happening there?

I guess it was so many folk emailing they had to take notice and they did

 

[nicholsong]

Well done F&LS and those who wrote in, including Cameron McNeish's good video well argued.

So representation can work with the right listeners.

Geoff

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[Puddleduck]

I've had a positive response!!!! Well worth the email. We will probably have a night away next week.

Dear Helen,

Thank you for your email. Your comments and thoughts are really appreciated and will be added to our feedback discussions at the end of the trial.

Since our decision to end the trial early we have received a great deal of representation asking us to re-consider our position, and continue with the trial beyond August 2020.

It remains the case that we do not wish to hamper the recovery of local campsite businesses. However, it has become apparent that in some parts of Scotland, including some fragile communities in the Highlands and the West, motorhome and campervan demand continues to exceed site provision.

After careful consideration of these representations – and those from a small number of businesses – we have now decided to continue with the trial until later in 2020. Please check our website www.forestryandland.gov.scot/staythenight for the latest information.

We’ll make some adjustments to the trial, in response to what we have learnt to date, and will continues to assess the need for a longer trial in 2021.

Thanks for taking the time to email us and hope our decision to reconsider answers your concerns,

Best wishes,





Motorhome and Campervan Trial Team
Forestry and Land Scotland, 231 Corstorphine Road, Edinburgh, EH12 7AT
e: campervantrial@forestryandland.gov.scot w: forestryandland.gov.scot/staythenight


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