Ards & North Down Borough’s public car parks prohibited to Motorhomes - Donaghadee Aire closed

What brought about this sudden turn of events? I thought they were trying to expand provision for Motorhomes?

I don’t think they can do a u turn just like that? What needs to happen is we all go or a certain number of motorhomes goes each week end to test it out.

Ally i would not hold my breath waiting for that reply.

Tourism Manager, Ards and North Down Council.

Bit shocked, but not entirely surprised at the mail from Alex @ n. Down. They were overwhelmed by the number of vans at times over the summer. I understood that overnighting was permitted as ddee had a different bye-law from previous council. In my last meeting on the ground in July I wanted them to block access to the park after about 10 Motorhome bays (like Cobh). I also urged them as a temporary measure to put signs up to redirect overspill to Millisle and Luke’s point to meet demand but take the pressure off ddee.

I would propose that we get a couple of people to contact the various caravan parks listed in the attachment to check are they open at present. Will they take a single night booking, especially a Friday or Saturday. can we arrive late, ie 9pm. From the list provided I have already discovered poor websites, no ability to book online, sites closed for the winter and mixed reviews. The other official link to visitardsandndown does not even list touring sites.

First scan of the document linked to council meeting by joeflo acknowledges the need to make provision for Motorhomes and does not seem to carry anything adverse.

I assume the the tourist department who are supportive of our cause are being manipulated by outside vested interests.

Nobody said this crusade would be easy, so we will just have to keep chipping away. We need to constantly make use of the fact that caravan sites do not supply the product we want at a sensible price, nor have they the business sense to see the easy money all year round by providing easy access flexible overnight parking at a reasonable rate.

Davy

The attachment that was sent with the email from the Council.

This is the main issue that we need to get across. There has been further discussions this morning and Davy will be posting shortly.

It's not good news but hopefully good things will happen.

I wonder will I still be able to park at 3 am whilst out walking

Is this now a Motorhome Aires without overnight parking?
If I am reading this right then abuse of the site has contributed to this decision, once again Motorhomers ignorance of other people's needs have caused this.

Good work and I wish you every success.

whilst in france this summer i made use of Camping car Parking aires they have a barrier, 6amp elec hook up, fresh water,and free wifi it is possible to pay at machine at barrier or obtain a swipe card which can be prepayed to any valve to gain access to many of the aires. very secure and when thee aire is full no more entrants average cost 8 euro

Totally with you on this one Davy,just a pity that the minority destroy it for the majority.

Sorry to learn about this closure. There was a lot if work went in getting it opened in the first place, and the council had to change the by laws but then Stormont had people we could meet for help at the time. Aires need monitoring by someone who knows what to look for. I had just heard that some of the site owners were endless on the pressure to get it closed, sites are different and getting a local Aires closed will not help them I would argue quite the opposite.
We almost lost the Broughshane Aires but so far I have been able to intervene and make changes but it is a work in progress and if nobody is in our corner this is what happens.
For what it's worth I think we need a offical organisation that everyone knows is there to operate Aires and even stopovers. Perhaps attached to the tourist office to monitor and control everything with proper funding.

Currently at the NI Leisure and the rumour mill is in full force.

However, Ards and North Down Council have a stand there and they are getting inundated with questions about what has happened. All good questions and good communication, we need to rally ourselves together in this issue as it's going to take a bit of beating.


According to rumours at the show, a local campsite has took a legal case against the council as the by laws stop overnight camping or parking.

I'm not saying that is the case, but that's the story that everyone seems to know.

Our extremely outdated and poorly implemented 1963 caravan act seems to be a stumbling block.

I do seem to remember that this 1963 act can be beaten when it comes to Motorhomes so going to look further into that.

Not that I've seen.

Sounds like what happened when Cobh Aire opened? I would assume the same or at least similar regs apply across NI so whatever the outcome it will set a precedent. I’ll be up at he show myself tomorrow afternoon. I have never actually got around to staying a Donaghadee yet but that trip will go on the back burner for now. I’ll keep heading up the the north coast in the meantime.

I have been in speaking with a councillor we know and he is going to look into to this for me as his understanding is that council is supportive of Motorhomes hence the plans to improve parking overnight for us. He knows were this problem is coming from and I feel it will be sorted out as they are investing a lot of money to provide aires for us on the peninsula. He understands how the area is benefiting from the free advertising they get on Motorhome websites due to having aires. These going round Europe with evidence in donaghadee as shops have benefited from visitors coming France Denmark Germany and from all around our isles.
Here’s looking forward to a bright future, but we should stop blaming ourselves in this particular situation.