Tourists caught emptying motorhome toilets into Loch Rannoch

Jim

Jim

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Well that's the headline at least. Hopefully, we will see charges brought against those caught by the conservation officer.

www.thecourier.co.uk

Tourists caught emptying motor home toilets into Loch Rannoch

An influx of wild campers and motor homes in Highland Perthshire has sparked calls for beauty spots to be protected. Residents and conservationists have
www.thecourier.co.uk www.thecourier.co.uk
 
Appalling but probably true ... we used Loch Rannoch as our trial for our cycle camp tour across France ... ended up at the campsite as the tent spaces near the loch had piles of litter and shallow dug latrines from car campers ...
 
Jim said:
If they caught someone I'm sure they would have nicked them. Well I would have. If no charges are pressed then you have to doubt the validity of the claim.
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It says it was a conservation officer that caught them and I'm not sure exactly what powers they have. I hope at the very least they got fined and told to bugger off.

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monzer said:
It says it was a conservation officer that caught them and I'm not sure exactly what powers they have. I hope at the very least they got fined and told to bugger off.
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I would hope he took names and registration and reported it to the Police
 
the individual needs hammering...

I do hope they react with more vigor than that of Loch Lomond Rangers when i pointed them at a similar issues at one of their "Permit camping" areas last year.
 
What a mentality. When we were parked up at a free site in Greece, there were about 10 vans all sharing what was a lovely site. Suddenly there was an almighty pong. Turns out one van had dumped his toilets over the wall of the taverna just where everyone was parked. The to**er had no idea why 5 of us went and remonstrated with him. His answer: "well I had a full toilet. What did you want me to do?" We told him in.
I hate to think what the lovely local Greeks made of us.
 
Jim said:
If they caught someone I'm sure they would have nicked them. Well I would have. If no charges are pressed then you have to doubt the validity of the claim.
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When Scarborough Council tried to introduce a parking ban because they stayed motorhome users were emptying cassettes into the sea I submitted a Freedom of Information request asking for dates and what proof they had. Their reply was there were anecdotal reports! What a load of bent councillors!
 
It does open up the debate about having better facilities in this country.

Most of my travelling so far has been Spain when you are always only an app click away from finding somewhere for motorhome services. You never have too far to travel.

Think of foreign van owners in the UK. They don't know the country, most likely they don't know any home owners here like us where we can use facilities at friends or families etc and then if they ask at a lot of camp sites they are charged for using them.

I'm not saying that if you can't find anywhere you should just go dump your chemical waste in the nearest loch but the country isn't exactly geared up to combat it.

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Stayed on a beautiful campsite(with all the facilities) on the edge of a Swiss lake a couple of years ago and a caravan unraveled 20m of tube all reasonably well hidden into the lake..........we were sat having lunch so I was nosey anyway especially when I saw the coiled tube.
Quietly mentioned it in the site office and they uncovered it, talked to him about it and that was it......allowed to stay.....INCREDIBLE hey??
 
Totally unacceptable and i hope they are going to make an example of these plebs.
No matter what this behaviour is terrible and can only do our hobby harm.
It still amazes me why Scotland created the 500 route but didn't think it would bring HUNDREDS of tourists.
The route is desperate for some infrastructure to accomoadate everyone.
Scotland is reaping the rewards of increased tourism so it's time to put some money into facilities.
 
So, is the problem that Motorhomers, behaving badly, cause local authorities etc to deliberately make things difficult for them?

Or is it that, because local authorities make things difficult for motor-homers, some of them behave badly?

Regardless of the above, anyone doing what was described in the OP deserves prosecution and an “environmental “ fine.
 
We don’t wild camp often but always remember a friend telling me many years ago “All you should leave behind are your footprints “ Have tried to stick to that and never forgotten.

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Cassette and a packet of wipes in a large laundry bag and park near a public toilet. Make sure toilet is clean after use and do not dispose of wipes down the toilet.
If this operation is carried out carefully you leave no evidence and there should be nothing for anyone to get upset about.
There will be someone who disagrees though :rolleyes:
 
grasscutter said:
Cassette and a packet of wipes in a large laundry bag and park near a public toilet. Make sure toilet is clean after use and do not dispose of wipes down the toilet.
If this operation is carried out carefully you leave no evidence and there should be nothing for anyone to get upset about.
There will be someone who disagrees though :rolleyes:
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I agree, where no other actual or usable facility exists. It it a Quite reasonable action.(y) at least the effluent gets into a treatment plant and not some watercourse.

We could start a new Thread called "Stealth Cassette Emptying". ?:D Probably get to 1000post`s in no time!.:D

BarStewards who just dump, and don`t clean up after them are a blight on the landscape and the Community. BUT like other forms of "littering" it is only really going to be mitigated by a combination of education and strong sanction.
 
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Instead of banning motorhomes they should do what every other EU country does, and provide proper parking aires.
We are on a free aire in France, there are general waste bins and recycling bins and usually places to empty black and grey waste for free. There are hundreds of similar aires.
 
monzer said:
It does open up the debate about having better facilities in this country.

Most of my travelling so far has been Spain when you are always only an app click away from finding somewhere for motorhome services. You never have too far to travel.
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Is there an Motorhome Services App for the UK ?
(I've had a browse and not found anything)

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jongood said:
IMO providing bornes would be a good thing for the supermarket with filling stations to get into. It would cost next to nothing to set up and would attract MH's to the stores/fuel.

I can also see nothing wrong with using public toilets as long as its done responsibly.
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N Z are very good at this.
 
The odd Motorhome dumping their cassette in lakes, sea, the roadside is disgusting and unacceptable. But it pails into the insignificance compared to the amount of car drivers who pee, crap and just throw their dirty tissues down at the roadside, laybys, parking areas etc., then there are all the bottles of piss from lorry drivers.

Motorhomes get targeted and they ban the lot of because of the misdemeanours of a few but they are quite happy to let thousands of people crap and pee everywhere, it just doesn't add up.

The only logical explanation is that UK councils or councillors don't like Motorhomes and will do whatever they can to stop them.
 
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Silver-Fox said:
N Z are very good at this.
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I couldnt agree more Public Dump Stations everywhere and lots of parkig places make NZ one of the best places we ve motorhomed in. Shame its such a long flight.

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None of us like the idea but dumping waste of all types by motorhome users is more common than we like to admit. Lay-bys streams gullies storm drains are all tempting when wild camping with full tanks. What do you do with your full tanks when wilding in remote areas?
 
This is something I have been researching in the UK, on the web and many on FB group, the results are on a map I've made that shows the ones I have found as an icon emptying a cassette.
It can be seen on the Wildcamping map on my website www.wildcamping.moonfruit.com/wild-camping-uk/4563550466
If anyone wants to add any I missed please let me know by message on here and they will be added.
There are some also on the Pub Stopover Map, also on the website, but generally we lag well behind Europe here.
_____Web Wilds.png
 
Given that some towns have closed all Public Toilets you can imagine how far down the list of priorities provision for emptying ours would be. As an aside there are still trains in use that dump on the track and some boats that dump in the water.
 
Someone will abuse whatever is done, my little bit of rubbish doesn't matter, one night in a residential street does no harm and so on. The problem is people not "bent councilors" (elected by the same people who dump their shit in lakes) and it won't change until they are hit in the pocket or we are allowed the publish photos of them committing the offence.
 
ctc said:
Someone will abuse whatever is done, my little bit of rubbish doesn't matter, one night in a residential street does no harm and so on. The problem is people not "bent councilors" (elected by the same people who dump their shit in lakes) and it won't change until they are hit in the pocket or we are allowed the publish photos of them committing the offence.
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I agree that anyone that dumps shit illegally should be fined and named & shamed but the reality is it would be impossible to police. So instead we should be making it easier for them to find a proper service for it.

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