Motorhome parking restrictions are spreading across the UK and I am getting properly fed up with it. Every season there seems to be another car park with a height barrier, another seafront with a new no overnight sign, another council that has decided motorhomes are a problem to be managed rather than visitors to be welcomed.
I live in a motorhome for a good chunk of the year and I work from it. I have spent a lot of money in small towns that were glad to see me. I have also driven away from plenty of places because the council made it clear I was not wanted.
Why Councils Are Restricting Motorhome Parking
I do understand the complaints, and I will not pretend there are none. Some people leave rubbish behind. Some park up for a week on a narrow coastal road and treat it like a private campsite. A few empty things they should not empty anywhere near a car park.
Those people make life harder for the rest of us and they give councillors an easy headline. A resident emails about a van parked outside their house, a local paper picks it up, and suddenly the quickest fix is a height barrier. It costs a few thousand pounds, it solves the complaint and nobody has to think any harder.
The trouble is that a height barrier does not tell the difference between a thoughtless visitor and a couple who are going to spend three nights eating at local restaurants. It just blocks everyone.
The Real Cost to Local Tourism
Here is what gets missed. A motorhome owner arrives with a full tank of diesel and an empty fridge, and the fridge does not stay empty. We buy from the butcher, the bakery and the farm shop. We eat out, we pay for attractions and we fill up at the local garage.
Many of us travel out of season too, when hotels sit half empty and coastal towns are desperate for footfall. That is exactly when a pub on the edge of nowhere needs customers. Turning us away in March because of a problem that happens in August is daft.
If you want to see how much this matters, look at where people actually go. Our guide to the best UK motorhome destinations is full of places that depend on visitors, and the ones that make it easy to stay get repeat business.
Overnight Parking Bans and the Wild Camping Mess
The wild camping debate makes it worse because the rules are a muddle. In England and Wales you generally need the landowner's permission, in Scotland the access rights work very differently, and the signs on the ground rarely help anyone work out which rules apply. I have written before about wild camping in the UK and Europe and the honest answer is that it is confusing even for people trying to follow the rules.
When the rules are unclear and the legal options are shrinking, you push people towards the grey areas. Ban every sensible overnight stop and you cannot be surprised when vans end up in lay bys and on verges. You have created the exact problem you were trying to stop.
What Other Countries Do Better
Cross the Channel and the picture changes. France has aires, simple designated stopping places with water, waste disposal and a modest fee. Plenty of small French towns see them as an asset and a reason for travellers to stop rather than drive through.
Germany and Spain have their own versions of the same idea. The principle is boringly simple. Give people a decent legal place to stop, charge a fair price and the money lands in the local economy. Nobody needs a consultation exercise to work that out.
What UK Councils Should Do Instead
I am not asking for councils to throw the doors open everywhere. I am asking for a bit of common sense, which is not much to ask. Here is what I would do if I ran a coastal council tomorrow.
First, set aside a proper motorhome area with a fair overnight charge and a waste point. It pays for itself, it keeps vans out of residential streets and it gives visitors a reason to choose your town. Second, publish clear rules online so people can check before they arrive instead of finding a sign at midnight.
Third, work with the businesses that benefit. A pub or farm with spare land and a few hook ups can do more for local tourism than any council scheme, which is why our list of cheap motorhome overnight stops in the UK leans heavily on pubs and farms. Councils could make that easier with simple planning guidance rather than treating every small site as a battle.
Enforce Against the Few, Not Everyone
Fines for littering, dumping waste and long term occupation of public spaces already exist. Use them. Penalising the minority who cause damage is far smarter than shutting everyone out because of them.
The Bigger Point About Small Business Policy
This is really the same story I keep seeing with small business policy. Make the sensible thing easy and people do it. Make everything difficult, blame the people who struggle and you end up with less activity, less money and a lot more resentment.
Rural and coastal towns need visitors, particularly those who stay a while and work remotely. I covered the connectivity side of that in my piece on rural broadband and remote working policy, and it fits together. A town with decent signal and a welcoming stopping place is a town that can attract people like me for weeks at a time.
What You Can Do About It
If you travel in a motorhome, do your bit. Take your rubbish with you, use designated areas where you can and spend money locally so the town sees the benefit. Tell councils and tourism boards when a restriction has cost them your custom, because a polite email does more than you would think.
And if you run a business or sit on a parish council, have a proper look at what a welcoming approach could do for you. One well run stopping area can change a quiet town in a single season. I would rather see more of those than another height barrier.
