GREAT EXPECTATIONS
New Earswick’s been in the news recently. For those who know the name, but can’t quite place it, New Earswick is just a hop, skip and a jump from York. It’s a leafy residential area – a model garden village – built by the late Joseph Rowntree, around 1902. This ‘JR’ was a real life Willy Wonka, but equally importantly was also a philanthropist who helped pioneer the garden cities of the future.
Every house was built with a south-facing garden, all areas were landscaped and the intention was to produce somewhere desirable for ordinary folk to live in.
It succeeded, and then some.
Recently, however, in common with just about everywhere, the residents have suffered from an increase in vandalism and
anti-social behaviour. Convinced that the answer lay in a more robust police presence, they shelled out around £25,000 a year to buy an additional 24 hours of police time per week. Crime wasn’t reduced at all (though I suspect the copper in question was always being called away for other, more urgent, tasks) and so the ‘experiment’ was thought by many to have been a failure, though others claimed it had merely been badly executed.
The general consensus among the broadsheet-reading, chattering classes in ‘Chianti-shire’ was that the villagers had ‘unreasonable expectations’. Personally, I think they had reasonable expectations!
In a similar vein, I was surprised when a director of one of the UK’s most popular motorhome manufacturers also came out with the phrase, “They have unreasonable expectations”. This time, it was being applied to people who bought his motorcaravans. He thought it unreasonable that they
should buy a new, £30,000
-£50,000 motorhome and expect it to stand up to the rigours of ‘wintering-out’ in the sun. He claimed that this level of occupancy rate was far too high for a leisure vehicle, and that it wasn’t surprising, therefore, if things fell off, or broke, as it was being ‘over-used’. Claiming that, ‘any recreational vehicle is only designed for occasional use’ was, he suggested, further evidence of the reasonableness of his point of view.
Obviously, then, full-timing by a family of eight in a budget entry-level £20,000 coachbuilt is ‘unreasonable’.
On the other hand, does a retired couple, spending up to £50,000 on a new top-of-the-range model, have unreasonable expectations if they want to use it to spend three or four months abroad at a stretch without the need to continually repair fixtures and fittings? Write and let me know what you think.
The more I ponder this, the less sure I am about my position. Maybe motorhomes ought to be graded by a system which recognises different expected levels of usage, and offers levels of quality to match? A bit like the differences between touring caravans and residential park homes (i.e. static caravans).
ON THE RIGHT TRACK
My partner and I have just enjoyed an enchanting visit, in our motorhome, to Pecorama at Beer. Model railway enthusiasts will know that this is home to the manufacturing facility which makes PECO model railway track, locomotives and rolling stock.
Not surprisingly, there is
a constantly changing exhibition of super model railway layouts in the exhibition hall. And much more. So much, in fact, that it was one of our best day trips out in the van last year. In the grounds, there are some really well laid-out gardens (‘rooms’) each depicting a theme
or representing some event such as the
new millennium.
You can also take a trip on the Beer Heights Light Railway, enjoy some refreshment in the restaurant, attend a talk in the 60-seat lecture theatre, play a round of crazy golf, or just watch the kids enjoying using the play equipment. A great day out for all the family with sufficient parking space to accommodate motorhomes.
Why not camp nearby and explore the lovely heritage coastline? We stayed at Newlands Holiday Village. It has plenty of on-site attractions, including a heated indoor pool, bowling alley, restaurant and bar. There are lots of bracing walks nearby, too, so you don’t have to move your motorhome off-site.
AND THE WINNER IS…
As I write, the 2004 Caravan Industry Awards have just been announced, with a very interesting winner in the Motorcaravan of the Year section. No, not Hymer's Exsis, or a new VW T5-based conversion, but a dealer special on the ubiquitous Boxer. The winner offered a carefully thought-out layout, Brit-friendly kitchen,
high specification and sharp value-for-money.
Here are the main results of interest to motorcaravanners:
2004 Motorcaravan of the Year Marquis Majestic Starblazer
(by Autocruise CH)
Motorcaravan Kitchen Award Compass Castaway
Motorcaravan Washroom Award Hymer 564
Security Award Tracking system fitted to Avondale motorcaravans
Innovation Award Avondale Seascape ELX.
BRAKING NEWS (Part II)
As I mentioned last month, the three-month-old-but-already-shot discs and pads from our motorhome have now been returned to VW for examination.
According to my mechanic, they have gone from the Peterborough local VW van centre, to the local area main dealer in Huntingdon, and onwards to Wolfsburg in Germany. They’ve only been gone for six weeks, so I expect the poor technicians haven’t had a moment to look at them…
I’m told that the usual time frame for this sort of thing is three to six months. I must suggest that sort of time delay when I’m paying for my next lot of VW parts.
SIZE MATTERS
I came across the ship in the picture (above, right) while I was out testing a Swift coachbuilt. The photo was taken at Sutton Bridge. The captain had got his craft wedged sideways while attempting to turn it around… and then the tide went out! The ship was a write-off and had to be broken up in situ. I can’t recall what happened to the Captain’s career, but I suspect he’s in ‘dry dock’ somewhere!
By the time I’d finished nosing around, the whole world had parked behind me. Fortunately, unlike the ship’s captain, I could turn my transport – a 19ft 5in (5.92m) Swift test van – in the width of the transport artery (a narrow road without kerbs, and a steep drop on each side). It was not for the first time that I congratulated myself on my decision to limit the length of our own motorcaravan. Just as well, as it is also used as a car.
If I’ve just paid an arm and a leg for something, I’m going to use it at every opportunity!
The drift towards ever-longer motorhomes is having a real effect on those site operators who laid out their facilities 20 or more years ago. Back then, most ‘tuggers’ had a 12ft (3.65m body length) caravan and most motorcaravanners had either a pop-top VW (see Gallery, left) or sub-5.5m coachbuilt. Having laid out the pitch size and site roads to suit, site owners now find themselves presented with outfits around 50 percent longer. Not only do they sometimes not fit on the pitch, they often can’t even get around the site without having to drive across flower beds.
It’s a tough one, this, because the operator may well face financial ruin if he suddenly halves the number of pitches to double their size, and doubles the fees to compensate. Perhaps payment per metre might be an answer?
Equally worrying is the trend for ‘tuggers’ to have an awning the size of a marquee on each side of their caravan – and then a gazebo, too!
In a similar vein, an alarming incident took place at a recent outdoor show when an RV (not the one photographed) parked on the pitch extremity and then extended its slide-outs over my friend’s pitch! I mean, fair play – the two inhabitants are going to be really short of space in their 38ft triple slide-out. I suppose it’s not the size of the motorhome itself that is the problem, but the driver trying to shoehorn it into a space that is clearly inadequate.
IT'S GOODBYE FROM HIM…
Alan Bishop is leaving The National Caravan Council (NCC) to take up a new directorship at HPI, the vehicle data organisation.
During his time as director general of the NCC, Alan has
re-positioned the Council as the authoritative voice of the industry. I have seen him grasp the helm and set the NCC on a more
pro-active course, as evidenced by the recent introduction of an NCC Approval Scheme for motorcaravan workshops. (I’ve just visited one at the South Hereford Motorcaravan Service Centre – turn to page 150 of the February 04 issue).
So, here’s wishing you good luck in your new post, Alan, from all of us at Practical Motorhome.
And now it’s goodbye from me, too, until next month. Cheerio,
and happy motorcaravanning!
Jack Bancroft |
