By William Coleman
There are things in life that you simply do not like and that are “pet peeves”. My list of pet peeves gets a little longer when it comes to being onsite, as I am sure it does with a lot of people. Caravan Guard recently published a list of the Top 10 peeves and we cannot help but agree with them.
On site you can come across a large amount of things that can put your nose out of joint such as noisy neighbours, people walking across camping pitches, and dirty showers and toilets, which actually dominated the top 10 list following a recent survey by Caravan Guard, but the list goes on and on.
11% of the voters who took part in the online poll by the caravan and motorhome insurance specialists also listed complaints regarding dogs not on leashes, fouling and barking.
More than 700 caravanners and motorhomers responded when asked to list their pet peeves when away in their leisure vehicle, with Wi-Fi charges (6%); noise after curfew (5%); and narrow, overgrown country lanes (4%) making the top ten list of annoyances.
But it wasn’t all moans and groans as “packing up to go home” also made the top 10 – proving how much caravanners and motorhomers really do love time away in their ‘van.
Although many people do like to take their dogs away in their caravan or motorhome and there are lots of pet-friendly campsites to stay at, they’re also the cause of lots of frustration, if the comments on the poll were anything to go by!
The behaviour of dogs and their owners flooded the comments box, with barking dogs, over-friendly mutts, and dog mess being just some of the pet hates of our four-legged companions.
One camper even said campsites should be segregated into dog owners and non-dog owner areas.
Height barriers and lack of motorway service parking facilities were other popular pet hates for motorhomers and caravanners.
Richard Geddes said he’d not been able to visit attractions in areas they’d visited because the local council had put height barriers across its public car parks.
Alan Bennet said: “Apparently my cash spend at a lot of destinations is not wanted, this is the only conclusion that I can make for the erection of height barriers at many car parks. Also the lack of parking spaces for motorhomes. Also the lack of waste emptying facilities at motorway service areas.”
David Fisher agreed and said he would happily pay more for parking a larger vehicle: “Height barriers – this is an indiscriminate method of controlling illegal encampments but prevents those who legitimately wish to visit many locations.”
He also added that he didn’t like the lack of local authority designated motorhome overnight parking areas.
“Provision of these would assist the current demand on other caravan touring sites. Motorhomes are self-sufficient and don’t generally require full site facilities.”, continued David.
Other complaints included kids cycling around, people not sticking to the campsite speed limits and the cost of electric hook-ups in summer.
I am sure there are a lot of people who will disagree with some of these and some who feel they are spot on. To each their own. In the past we have had a lot of heated debates on the the child/pet situation so we would love to hear your thoughts on this making the list.
