Wheelchair friendly?

[simsy56]

Recently we stayed one night at the Troutbeck head CAMC site. We have stayed before and know what to expect, nice clean facilities, disabled showers (I am an amputee), a very nice site all in all.

A young Danish lady, along with her maybe 3 year old son arrived, in a smallish Mercedes sprinter campervan, on a pitch near us. She was totally reliant on her wheelchair, managing to get her chair out and getting in it, straight form the drivers seat, she hooked up, opened the rear door and proceeded to make a meal for her and her little fella. Everything seemed to be very organised in the little camper.

She was opposite the toilet block, close to the fresh water tap, and seemed to be having a good time. Very commendable.

I realised then, that despite the site being 'wheelchair friendly', with ramps here and there, wheelchair accessible toilet and showers, etc; All the pitches are gravel! She struggled to move around her camper, trying to organised things. Off the pitch all was as well as could be.

I think a couple of true hard stands would be a good idea for such occasions. Gravel looks pretty, but no good for wheelchair users.

Craig

 

[Whippet93]

My wife uses a wheelchair and we've found in the past places with paths that claim to be accessible but are gravel paths. Yes they are fairly level and without steps, but very difficult to manoeuvre a wheelchair over. Grass can be much easier to travel across as long as the ground is firm.

 

[dryad]

light gravel is a wheelchair users nightmare, often just about do-able, when it’s deep you just get totally bogged down and going nowhere and if in a heavy electric wheelchair, well, that’s your lot..

 

[hja]

We have small foldable mobility scooters, same issue with gravel. What surprises me is that large organisations like the CAMC who are keen on their inclusive credentials don’t seem to have real live input from a range of disabled people.

 

[Tiger Bear]

When we tour in the US and Canada, for the nights when we don't freedom camp, we always try to choose a campsite that is operated by State Parks, National Forests, and other national and local government agencies. This is because, not only are they far cheaper than independent campsites, their ADA compliance is almost always excellent, with almost all of them having great disabled and wheelchair accessible toilets and bathrooms. Depending on the type and size of campsite, I would say that 5/10% of the pitches are reserved for disabled campers, and almost all of those are wholly wheelchair accessible; by that, I mean that the hardstanding is either tarmac or concrete, and there is a wheelchair accessible path of similar construction leading from the pitch to the restrooms/bathrooms.

We are new to touring in the UK, and of the two campsites we have stayed in that had disabled toilets and showers, neither of them had dedicated pitches for disabled campers. Although we were, by request, allocated the nearest pitch to the toilet and shower block, our lass could not use them. Although one pitch had a tarmac hardstanding, she would still have to negotiate loose gravel and soft/damp grass to get to the facilities. The other pitch was loose gravel, so that was a non-starter.

If our experience so far of UK campsites is typical of what is available, then the disabled facilities over here must fall far behind those available in North America.

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