Drivers' Union

 

In response, they claim, to masses of motor home users inundating their

coastal beach car parks, 'leaving no space for car

drivers' and indeed what is known as 'wild camping' -that is to over-night for free

on the terraces and beach parks, Lincolnshire Council, led by Councillor Colin Davie,

have constructed height barriers along its coastal parking places with one objective: To stop motor caravanners from using them at any time.

 

 

As you will see from the photographs of these sites, they are large enough to accommodate fleets of lorries, never mind a few motor homes so the first part of the excuse really doesn't ring true.

 

In another picture we show one of the explicit signs forbidding over night stays, so presumably there is a bye-law to back the signs. That being so, then there is clearly a failure by The Council or police to move these people on. If there is no such bye-law, what were they doing so wrong to warrant the discrimination against the 99.9% of motor home owners who do use accredited sites at night and only wish to use the same facilities enjoyed by other private motorists during the day when visiting our coast?

 

Hasn't LCC noticed that motor caravanning has caught up with those who prefer to tow a little house behind them, then plant it in one spot for the duration of a holiday so that they can drive around in the same car they have driven all year? Motor caravanning is a whole different concept more akin to boating holidays where your home takes you everywhere you want to go and stay with minimum of plans needed? Not much point in letting large 10 people cruisers out on the Norfolk Broads then just allowing little motor boats to visit points of interest is there? Same with motor home holidays then!

 

What can be nicer on a hot day but to have your own mobile beach hut with you complete with fridge, hot & cold, toilet and cooker, with a TV or CD for anyone who doesn't quite feel up to it? Cheap food and drink, bought locally of course, keeps the cost of feeding the kiddies as low as being at home no matter where you are sight-seeing.

 

Yes of course those just stuck with a car will be envious of all this, but a high price has been paid for it with purchase taxes, the usual fuel taxes, higher vehicle excise duty and council taxes too so what legal right does any council have for discriminating against one class of citizen simply because of failure to administer its own rules?

 

Doesn't Lincolnshire want this class of holiday maker? They come here for the sea and beaches don't they? But why this is particularly galling is that smaller trader's vans can use the facilities and what's to stop someone laying a bed out in a 4 x 4, complete with mini tv, a mini cooler and indeed a gas ring for a fry up in the morning too? The barriers can't prevent that.

But as you will see from the pictures, some of these motor homes are registered disabled, as is ours, because in my wife's case, for various reasons, she needs to frequently lay down quite suddenly or use a toilet at very short notice. That, and river holidays, are the only kind of holiday she can endure now as well as the need to have a motor scooter with her too. Look at the picture of the registered disabled motor-home so near yet so far from disabled bays with only a barrier between them. There are many others just like us. How can this be right and justified?

 

But not just motor homes. Look at a typical special needs coach. The type of vehicle that takes disadvantaged kids and adults, often on walking frames and in wheel chairs, on day trips to the coast.

 

 

The glory of Lincolnshire is its wonderful beaches, so what does Lincolnshire do for the length of its coastline? It bans access to all kinds of people by discriminating against their vehicle. Makes you proud to be a Yella Belly does it?