# Help... Ireland doesn't want Motorhomes....



## chrisblack

See the following 2 threads on our own Motorhome Forum....

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055389944

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055328499

If any of you are interested in contacting the Irish Tourist Board, or the Local Councils concerned, then please feel free to support us in any way you can... and maybe contribute to our discussion on the boards...

Thanks

Chris


----------



## asprn

I got as far as, "Then in Glengarriff I noticed a woman breaking flowers off a Hydrangea bush in Quills carpark, she went back to a Cork reg camper".

They're all the same, these motorhomers.



Dougie.


----------



## chrisblack

From Cork Examiner By Peter Levy
I wonder should we kill off what’s left of the tourist trade by harassing the few remaining motoring tourists who make a big effort to get here by making a long ferry crossing usually from France?
Well that’s what some Co Cork councillors are proposing by targeting camper vans, which seem to have become of hate in some public representatives’ minds. The County Mayor, Cllr Noel Harrington, wants action to be taken against the owners of camper vans to prevent them from parking in places other than official licensed camp sites.
Cllr Harrington made the remarks at recent meeting of Cork County Councils Western Committee in Clonakilty and gota lot of support from other councillor's. Some were quite scathing about the camper van and it soon became cleat that they are not wanted here, under and circumstances. Fianna Fail councillor Joe Carroll objected to them, saying that camper vans took over narrow roads, while another Fianna Fail councillor Donal O Rourke, said he found galling to see them in public lay-bys using councils-provided facilities such as refuge bins and water taps.
But the criticism was not all on Fianna Fails side. Fine Gael Cllr Jim Daley said campers in general brought little to the local economy because they brought in their own supplies and left just rubbish behind them
“We shouldn’t be taking a softly, softly approach to this” he said It may not be that difficult to get rid of camper van tourists, if that’s what we really want to do. People who are travelling around in camper vans are often elderly foreigners, so it wouldn’t take much to put the windup them.
It would all have to be done legally, of course. To start the ball rolling, Cllr Harrington proposed bringing in bylaws to discourage them. Those would, presumably, involve penalties for parking overnight at beauty spots, beaches or other places of interest. Enforcement, I suspect would have to be by something more effective than parking tickets, which could simply be ignored by the ferry bound tourists.
I have a few suggestions. A better prevention method, maybe would be to use wheel clamps to keep the campers stranded until they could call a taxi to take them to the councils offices to pay a big fine to get the clamp removed. Or maybe a big notice, saying ROADESIDE CAMPINGFORBIDDEN in several languages could be fixed to the windscreen with strong glue (like illegal parking notices used by hospital car parks security people). This would take hours to remove and could easily spoil a holiday.
Or maybe they could be forced to attend council meetings to receive verbal abuse from our county councillors.
One snag with parking restrictions, though, might be implementation. Council officials at the meeting said the issue was a “complex legal area and it had been referred to the council’s legal section”. The other major problem with the introduction of bylaws was enforcement. Campers tended to set up at night, so enforcement was difficult and led to the possibility of night time duties for council staff. God forbid.
An alternative approach, said the officials( who seem to have more cop-on than the councillors). Would be to ensure that there are adequate facilities for campers and to make sure that these facilities are promoted in tourist, information booklets and websites and are properly signposted. And this is where we come back to reality.
There are actually only 12 camping parks in the whole of Co Cork and some are quite a long way apart. So anyone driving a camper around could be easily caught out for somewhere to stay. The alternative is a guesthouse, but tourists are deserting the guesthouses in droves because of the high prices. In France, for instance, where many of the camper van tourists hail from, you can stay in a B&B for as little as €45 a night for two, including a continental breakfast, which is around half what some establishments are charging here. In fact, if you arrive here in aa camper van from France, you’re in for a bit of shock. Because in France the local authorities take a positive attitude towards camper vans and actually provide facilities to encourage them. Just about every town or village in the tourist area have places for a small number of camper vans. These service stops provide water, electricity and rubbish and sewage disposal. All are fully automated and many require a small charge of about €3, payable through a coin machine or extracted from your credit card via a swipe card system — and some sites even free of charge. Local authorities here, on the other hand, offer nothing — exceptabuse at council meetings.
If our camper van visitors could actually find one of the 12 privatly-run campsites in the country they are faced with hefty charges for overnight stays. A bill for a family in a camper van can come to €25or so and in some sites there’s a petty €10 deosit for the loan of an electricity cable. Thatsroughly what’s chargen in France for sites with generous facilities like bars, restaurants andswimming pools.
The Breton department of Finisterre, which is only a small part of Brittany (6,773 sq km) is smaller than Co Cork (7,457 sq km), yet it has 61 campsites , compared toCo Cork’s 12 and, of course, the almost free facilities for camper vans. No wonder they camp on the roadside.
Finally, our councillors are alos talking rubbish about the camper van tourist bringing their own food and spending nothing. You can’t bring much food in the kind of facilities supplied in camper vans. The fact is, camper van tourists are spenders. Highly mobile, they are frequent visitors to heritage sites, shopping at local shops and eating in local restaurants. They are the lifeblood of what remains of motering tourism and should be encouraged.


----------



## konit

I think the heading of this thread is a bit strong.

From reading elsewhere, even the UK suffers from this problem, with local councils not wanting Campervans in their towns. I think Bournemouth is one? or was it Brighton?

It is a pity that some camper owners make it dificult for the rest of us, but then I don't intend on visiting Kerry for some time!!

I like the article in the Cork examiner. "This would take hours to remove and could easily spoil a holiday. "


----------



## EJB

I won't be crossing the water to the west....thank goodness I won't be missing much :wink: 
I think I'll cross to the east where responsible, grown up people are really welcomed


----------



## Grizzly

chrisblack said:


> From Cork Examiner By Peter Levy
> l
> Fine Gael Cllr Jim Daley
> "We shouldn't be taking a softly, softly approach to this" he said It may not be that difficult to get rid of camper van tourists, if that's what we really want to do. People who are travelling around in camper vans are often elderly foreigners, so it wouldn't take much to put the windup them.


This is disgraceful ! Whatever his views on campers threatening them is totally out of order.

G


----------



## cabby

Could we not just send all the travellers back over there, then they would see what a mess really is. :roll: :roll: 

cabby


----------



## chrisblack

the heading may be a "bit strong", however we're talking about county councils who cover 4700sq miles of some of the most relaxing, inspiring, beautiful countryside and coast in the world (possibly)...

this started off in Kerry and has passed over into Cork... my feeling is that it won't be long before Waterford , on one side and Limerick on the other start expressing the same views, passing across the country like a rash and spoiling all our enjoyment...

oh... and as somone who supports/works with Travellers, I take offence at the statement above .. but won't get into an argument about it here.

chris


----------



## TonyH

Did these councillors really say those things ?


----------



## kalamitty

chrisblack, if you do work with the travelling communitty then can you get it across to them it is their own fault that the general public dislike them. we get loads of them every year in my town, they rip down the barriers to the local football pitches and camp on them and tend to do jobs then tip loads of waste (and i mean lorry loads of rubble trees etc) and every time they dissapear just before the council can apply an order to move them on, and it cost upwards of £10,000 to repair the damage also human waste is left on the ground. by all means let move about for work but they do not have a right to cause disruption to law abidding people so i have to agree with cabby and say send them all back to ireland. :evil:


----------



## zulurita

This is a shame.

I/we had been thinking of going to Ireland, I have never been. this has put me off.

i have sent an email via link given.


----------



## locovan

zulurita said:


> This is a shame.
> 
> I/we had been thinking of going to Ireland, I have never been. this has put me off.
> 
> i have sent an email via link given.


Please dont be put off as we had a wonderful wonderful time in Ireland in camp sites. :lol: 
The people are so friendly and we are going again later this year.
:lol:


----------



## SpeedyDux

This is going back a few years, but I was put off staying in Irish B&B's by a landlady who insisted that my OH stay in a separate bedroom because at the time we were unmarried. I don't know if that attitude is still prevalent today, but rip-off prices for holiday accommodation is a strong incentive to bring your MH to Ireland. It's on my list of places to re-visit.

I can understand the viewpoint of local people who don't want their beaches peppered with white MHs. That clashes with the natural beauty of their landscape. Unrestricted wild camping would spoil it for everyone.


SD


----------



## devonidiot

I've noticed a few protesters have mentioned the fact that M/h'ers do not spend money but misuse the local facilities.

We all buy fuel as we travel, we cannot carry all the food and drink we require therefore we purchase these items where we stay or pass through. On our travels we spend a good deal more per day than when at home. It appears that the only people who lose are the hotel and B & B owners.

I believe that some people confuse M/H'ers with travellers, although I have seen a few wild campers who are not as considerate as they should be.


----------



## carol

konit said:


> I think the heading of this thread is a bit strong.
> 
> From reading elsewhere, even the UK suffers from this problem, with local councils not wanting Campervans in their towns. I think Bournemouth is one? or was it Brighton?
> 
> It is a pity that some camper owners make it dificult for the rest of us, but then I don't intend on visiting Kerry for some time!!
> 
> I like the article in the Cork examiner. "This would take hours to remove and could easily spoil a holiday. "


I haven't read all the comments and would like to say this...

We married in 65 and spent our honeymoon in Ireland and loved it, people were so friendly and the place is magical.....

We have been going back intermittently over the years, and the last two visits one in the mid 90's with our Hymer (must say all the others were staying in your top hotels), but this was wonderful, we did a tour of the coast, and we were worried as we had an Irish plate, and would be crossing and recrossing the border a lot (when the troubles were on), and when we got around the top the NI were so pleased to see us, pleased that with the troubles that people would still come.

We went back in 2003....and I think I have said on here before, it has changed so much, to someone coming from rural Devon/Cornwall, it was like a giant building site in the south west, and in many places, all these bungalows have spoilt the scenery, there appeared to be no planning laws, and you chop off the top of a small hill and stick a bungalow, complete then with columns and a tractor.... then there was the small field that had become tourist houses....horrible...no thought

The worse bit from our point, was the people, yes they were nice, but oh how they seemed to have changed. Always moaning about the euro, the rise in prices etc., etc., that it sort of ruined the holiday.

Love the place, but we wont bother going back and reading what they are now saying in your local papers... We definitely won't bother....we shall go to France where they tolerate us with a lot more parking and friendliness and continue to use the CCC Holiday Sites here in the summer.

Shame really, Bill Lupton used to champion the Irish motorcaravanning idyl, and had the tavern trail...

I suppose it is called progress...

Carol

YEs the UK is bad, I disagree with you about that either


----------



## hilldweller

I'll open this up a bit so that I can read it...


I wonder should we kill off what’s left of the tourist trade by harassing the few remaining motoring tourists who make a big effort to get here by making a long ferry crossing usually from France?

Well that’s what some Co Cork councillors are proposing by targeting camper vans, which seem to have become of hate in some public representatives’ minds. The County Mayor, Cllr Noel Harrington, wants action to be taken against the owners of camper vans to prevent them from parking in places other than official licensed camp sites.
Cllr Harrington made the remarks at recent meeting of Cork County Councils Western Committee in Clonakilty and gota lot of support from other councillor's. Some were quite scathing about the camper van and it soon became cleat that they are not wanted here, under and circumstances. 

Fianna Fail councillor Joe Carroll objected to them, saying that camper vans took over narrow roads, while another Fianna Fail councillor Donal O Rourke, said he found galling to see them in public lay-bys using councils-provided facilities such as refuge bins and water taps.

But the criticism was not all on Fianna Fails side. Fine Gael Cllr Jim Daley said campers in general brought little to the local economy because they brought in their own supplies and left just rubbish behind them
“We shouldn’t be taking a softly, softly approach to this” he said It may not be that difficult to get rid of camper van tourists, if that’s what we really want to do. 

People who are travelling around in camper vans are often elderly foreigners, so it wouldn’t take much to put the windup them.
It would all have to be done legally, of course. To start the ball rolling, Cllr Harrington proposed bringing in bylaws to discourage them. Those would, presumably, involve penalties for parking overnight at beauty spots, beaches or other places of interest. Enforcement, I suspect would have to be by something more effective than parking tickets, which could simply be ignored by the ferry bound tourists.

I have a few suggestions. A better prevention method, maybe would be to use wheel clamps to keep the campers stranded until they could call a taxi to take them to the councils offices to pay a big fine to get the clamp removed. Or maybe a big notice, saying ROADESIDE CAMPINGFORBIDDEN in several languages could be fixed to the windscreen with strong glue (like illegal parking notices used by hospital car parks security people). This would take hours to remove and could easily spoil a holiday.

Or maybe they could be forced to attend council meetings to receive verbal abuse from our county councillors.
One snag with parking restrictions, though, might be implementation. Council officials at the meeting said the issue was a “complex legal area and it had been referred to the council’s legal section”. The other major problem with the introduction of bylaws was enforcement. 

Campers tended to set up at night, so enforcement was difficult and led to the possibility of night time duties for council staff. God forbid.
An alternative approach, said the officials( who seem to have more cop-on than the councillors). Would be to ensure that there are adequate facilities for campers and to make sure that these facilities are promoted in tourist, information booklets and websites and are properly signposted. And this is where we come back to reality.

There are actually only 12 camping parks in the whole of Co Cork and some are quite a long way apart. So anyone driving a camper around could be easily caught out for somewhere to stay. The alternative is a guesthouse, but tourists are deserting the guesthouses in droves because of the high prices. In France, for instance, where many of the camper van tourists hail from, you can stay in a B&B for as little as €45 a night for two, including a continental breakfast, which is around half what some establishments are charging here. 

In fact, if you arrive here in aa camper van from France, you’re in for a bit of shock. Because in France the local authorities take a positive attitude towards camper vans and actually provide facilities to encourage them. Just about every town or village in the tourist area have places for a small number of camper vans. These service stops provide water, electricity and rubbish and sewage disposal. All are fully automated and many require a small charge of about €3, payable through a coin machine or extracted from your credit card via a swipe card system — and some sites even free of charge. Local authorities here, on the other hand, offer nothing — exceptabuse at council meetings.

If our camper van visitors could actually find one of the 12 privatly-run campsites in the country they are faced with hefty charges for overnight stays. A bill for a family in a camper van can come to €25or so and in some sites there’s a petty €10 deosit for the loan of an electricity cable. Thatsroughly what’s chargen in France for sites with generous facilities like bars, restaurants andswimming pools.

The Breton department of Finisterre, which is only a small part of Brittany (6,773 sq km) is smaller than Co Cork (7,457 sq km), yet it has 61 campsites , compared toCo Cork’s 12 and, of course, the almost free facilities for camper vans. No wonder they camp on the roadside.

Finally, our councillors are alos talking rubbish about the camper van tourist bringing their own food and spending nothing. You can’t bring much food in the kind of facilities supplied in camper vans. The fact is, camper van tourists are spenders. Highly mobile, they are frequent visitors to heritage sites, shopping at local shops and eating in local restaurants. They are the lifeblood of what remains of motering tourism and should be encouraged.


----------



## Nora+Neil

I disagree with the heading of this post.

Help... Ireland doesn't want Motorhomes....

Thats not true.

The problems lies in Kerry and then Cork followed like lapdogs.
They are just 2 county out of 26 or even 32.

We have never had any problems in parking. if you take care where you park. Not in front of other people property or beside B/B or hotels.

We have all changed whether we are Irish, English, French etc.

I'm sorry Chrisblack but I have to agree the travelling community has a lot to answer for.
1 mile away we are left with the clean up.

Please let this not put,people off coming to Ireland.


----------



## aido

chrisblack said:


> See the following 2 threads on our own Motorhome Forum....
> 
> http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055389944
> 
> http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055328499
> 
> If any of you are interested in contacting the Irish Tourist Board, or the Local Councils concerned, then please feel free to support us in any way you can... and maybe contribute to our discussion on the boards...
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Chris


Have to disagree with what you have to say.
WE travel around the whole country and have never found anyone objecting to where we park.
Posts like the above would do more damage to visitors than any county councillers.
And that is not the only Irish Motorhome Forum
:evil:


----------



## Boff

Hi,

I agree with Nora+Neil. I think we should not "punish" the whole of Ireland for the stupid and stubborn behaviour of a few local councillors. If we are not welcome in 10% of the counties, then we will travel the remaining 90%. And after all, do we not all know certain politicians of similar stupidity from our home?

I think that here the same applies as what I have once said about certain French supermarkets blocking their car parks with height barriers: 

You just need to understand their message. It says: "We do not want your money. Please spend it somewhere else!" :wink: 

Best Regards,
Gerhard


----------



## locovan

Boff said:


> Hi,
> 
> I agree with Nora+Neil. I think we should not "punish" the whole of Ireland for the stupid and stubborn behaviour of a few local councillors. If we are not welcome in 10% of the counties, then we will travel the remaining 90%. And after all, do we not all know certain politicians of similar stupidity from our home?
> 
> I think that here the same applies as what I have once said about certain French supermarkets blocking their car parks with height barriers:
> 
> You just need to understand their message. It says: "We do not want your money. Please spend it somewhere else!" :wink:
> 
> Best Regards,
> Gerhard


That is what we did,we saw that there were barriers in carparks but we were able to Park ok at Waterford and then when we got to Kerry White Bridge Caravan Park we did all the coach tours where you then get to know all the history of the place as I wanted my husband to see everything.
I ran a rally of 25 vans and nobody complained they all had a great time.
I cant wait to go back again it was one of the best holidays we have had.
There is good and bad everywhere.


----------

