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Bertie, I am sorry but I find your disapproval for seasonal pitch holders to be somewhat selfish. My husband is disabled and I am not in best of health. We cannot afford a static van but managed to get together money for a  1994 van so that we can get away each weekend and through the school holidays. On our site our awning can stay up all season, so we have the extra space cos there is no-way we could stretch to but one up each time.

When we can't afford the site fees for a seasonal pitch I am afraid our lovely van will have to go as neither of us could manage to tow it. On motability, if we put a towbar on the car, we would have to get it taken off when the contract expired - money we do not have!

The small site we are on has a mixture of people on it, some pensioners, some with youngsters and also quite a few with jet ski's for the river right next to the site. There is also a lot of free spaces for touring tourers.

Please don't write us all off as being selfish and tying up pitches for tourers - we have our needs as well!!!!   (lol)

2 sides to every story.

Barbara made a lot of sense, but going to the extremes, i guess if you had enough cash, and just one caravan, you could, in theory, tie up a fair number of sites!

Quote: Originally posted by EdandAnne on 05/9/2007

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2 sides to every story.

Barbara made a lot of sense, but going to the extremes, i guess if you had enough cash, and just one caravan, you could, in theory, tie up a fair number of sites!

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Exactly my point.  You only have to look at how the take up of holiday homes in desirable parts of the country has blighted small villages.  How many of us who tour would wish to occupy a pitch among several deserted vans?  A touring van is just that; a touring van, which should not be allowed to assume the status of a static on a touring site.

Bertie.

Quote: Originally posted by The 2 Tops on 05/9/2007

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Quote: Originally posted by EdandAnne on 05/9/2007

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2 sides to every story.

Barbara made a lot of sense, but going to the extremes, i guess if you had enough cash, and just one caravan, you could, in theory, tie up a fair number of sites!

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Exactly my point.  You only have to look at how the take up of holiday homes in desirable parts of the country has blighted small villages.  How many of us who tour would wish to occupy a pitch among several deserted vans?  A touring van is just that; a touring van, which should not be allowed to assume the status of a static on a touring site.

Bertie.

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I think that if I was a site owner and had just gone through a season like we've just had, I would be thanking my lucky stars for any seasonal pitches I'd let.

We don't have a seasonal pitch and probably won't in the future because of the cost - but who knows, with the cost of storage, fuel, road fund licences and pitch fees, it might work out cheaper to take a seasonal pitch.  If it meant that I could still get away in the van, I would do it.

Quote: Originally posted by Surfer01 on 05/9/2007

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If some one pays £1000 plus for a site why should they tie it up for the duration.  Think about it!  In a number of cases if it was not for the seasonal caravanners giving the site a steady income the site may have to close and then where would you be?  There would be even less sites available.

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From our experience in recent years, the only reason for a site to regularly have empty pitches is because there is a problem with the site.  And I doubt whether anyone would want a seasonal pitch on a problem site.

Bertie.

Quote: Originally posted by The 2 Tops on 05/9/2007

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Quote: Originally posted by Surfer01 on 05/9/2007

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If some one pays £1000 plus for a site why should they tie it up for the duration.  Think about it!  In a number of cases if it was not for the seasonal caravanners giving the site a steady income the site may have to close and then where would you be?  There would be even less sites available.

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From our experience in recent years, the only reason for a site to regularly have empty pitches is because there is a problem with the site.  And I doubt whether anyone would want a seasonal pitch on a problem site.

Bertie.

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One normally finds seasonal sites on the more popular sites obviously for a very good reason.  We are taking up a seasonal pitch as it is less stressful and we know we always have a pitch to go to for a weekend and we do not have to use the 4 x 4 to tow it unless we decide to go off somewhere else for a week or two.

Everyone to their own :)

It would be a funny old world if we were all the same!

Quote: Originally posted by TekkieAnne on 05/9/2007

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I think that if I was a site owner and had just gone through a season like we've just had, I would be thanking my lucky stars for any seasonal pitches I'd let.

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You perhaps have no idea how true that is, our site owner is struggling and very thankful of his 'seasonals' Unless a site has plenty of hard standing, I'm sure most have had a very bad year

This year even when the rain stopped he was still having to turn people away the site being so water logged.

Quote: Originally posted by Surfer01 on 05/9/2007

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If some one pays £1000 plus for a site why should they tie it up for the duration.  Think about it!  In a number of cases if it was not for the seasonal caravanners giving the site a steady income the site may have to close and then where would you be?  There would be even less sites available.

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Checking figures. 30 years ago, seasonal pitches were unheard of, you had a static or a tourer.

There were double the number of sites back then, so the above cannot be correct.

Quote: Originally posted by arc systems on 06/9/2007

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Quote: Originally posted by TekkieAnne on 05/9/2007

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I think that if I was a site owner and had just gone through a season like we've just had, I would be thanking my lucky stars for any seasonal pitches I'd let.

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You perhaps have no idea how true that is, our site owner is struggling and very thankful of his 'seasonals' Unless a site has plenty of hard standing, I'm sure most have had a very bad year

This year even when the rain stopped he was still having to turn people away the site being so water logged.

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Quote: Originally posted by EdandAnne on 06/9/2007

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Checking figures. 30 years ago, seasonal pitches were unheard of, you had a static or a tourer.

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No not unheard of, I got slightly involved with a planning dispute where an aerial photo clearly showed very old tourers with grass growing long around them, (nothings new today then?!), together with bare patches of ground where vans had been for a considerable time but now gone. This photo was taken in 1966!!

The council lawyers were insisting this picture must have been taken during a rally? bloody long rally!!. Anyway the owner of the site told me this and I replied, if that's so? wheres the flag? all rallies have a flag. well they did in them days and it blew that bit of the councils argument out the water.

Still did'nt get planning though