Anyone holiday / surf in North Devon?

Long shot I know but if you’ve ever enjoyed our beaches and can spare a few minutes please have a read here through the links here:

http://community.magicseaweed.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=44207

And help us fight something that will rip the heart out of the community of our beach and affect locals, businesses and visitors alike.

Thanks for reading

After living in Barnstaple and then Braunton for a few years, this was just the kind of shit that made me want to move back to Plymouth. Car park charges at the Burrows were the last straw for me.

Objection duly submitted. As a North Devon resident this sort of thing makes my pee boil. I do however think that as Croyde, Braunton and Saunton become ever more popular as second home areas that some form of creeping commercialism of the very natural amenities that attract people to the area in the first place will always seep through.

Good to see that there are already a lot of objections logged with the North Devon planning portal.

If we stay at the hotel I would normally drop my FIL down to the beach as the walk down the hill is too much.
With barriers that will be impossible.
Signed.
edit. Have just read about the 10 minutes grace, 24 hour parking is still taking the piss though.

I’ve spent a lot of time at Saunton. This is pure greed from Saunton Beach Enterprises. One sure fire way to kill North Devon as a tourist destination is to price it out of the reach of locals.

Signed the petition and submitted an objection.

🙁

[/quote] One sure fire way to kill North Devon as a tourist destination is to price it out of the reach of locals

^^^ oxymoron locals are not tourists and can you explain why tourists should pay more than locals. A season ticket for low season use would be good but it is a private carpark and has to pay its way

Signed

The parking charges plus the hassle drive puts me off driving round to check Putts. I shall now be very selective about using Saunton car park too.

^^^ oxymoron locals are not tourists and can you explain why tourists should pay more than locals. A season ticket for low season use would be good but it is a private carpark and has to pay its way

Who do you think services the tourists?

The locals have already been priced out of the housing market, now they’re being priced out of the car parks. It’s purely greed by Saunton Beach Enterprises. Who also happen to own the hotel and beach villas.

Thanks for the replies so far!

There was a massive price hike last year which was justified as covering their increased costs. This will make saunton significantly more expensive than the other beach car parks and can only be profit driven.

It’s not so much about making it cheaper for locals, more to make it affordable for regular rather than occasional use. I think if you are out for the day you don’t mind paying a fair amount to park. If you live somewhere and want to use what is basically a free natural resource (the sea) you should be able to access it without extortionate charges.

The trail centres in the lakes are a good example. Day parking is £8 or so but locals can buy a pass for a few months at £45 so they are able to enjoy where they live.

The beach is used by many local clubs as well as visitors. The car park owners are forgetting that part of what draws people to their car park is the use by the local community and the exposure it generates for them

it is a private carpark and has to pay its way

Pay its way? What “way”? It’s a patch of land with a bit of hardcore down which is badly, very infrequently or never maintained. Has it been sponging off the state up to now?

Just a case of the owners thinking they can hike the rates, ditch some staff and make more money.

Edit – and some wood. There are some wood parking line markers down, too. I forgot about them

Plus most car parks charge 8-6 or similar all year. Locals often visit outside these times and therefore have not had to pay so often. This change will have the same high rate 24 hours a day and in low and high season

If you live somewhere and want to use what is basically a free natural resource (the sea) you should be able to access it without extortionate charges.

Quite right. Private land controlling access to a public amenity. Without the sea and the beach, people wouldn’t be parking there at all.

Also it will make it a lot more expensive for many holiday makers too.

Under the new system a “day at the beach” arriving at 9.30 and leaving about 5.30 will cost £12

In summer this currently costs £8 on weekends / summer holidays and £6 on a weekday in May/June and only £4 at most other times.

At present you can visit the beach for a dawn or after work or sunset surf or dog walk for free. Whether local or visitor.

As mentioned above the surface of the car park is vehicle damagingly rough and the toilets are not open year round either

Not quite the same but a local car park where a lot of local people used to ride the high peak trail, ride the proper stuff, walk dogs and generally walk introduced stupid parking charges a few years ago. It’s caused nothing but shit with people parking on the surrounding grass and even in the cemetery car parking spaces.

I think that’s what will happen here. There are a handful of laybys nearby on the B road that leads past the car park and people parking on the road itself will lead to chaos and there’s no pavement so dangerous too with people walking along with their beach stuff

Easy way round the parking charges is just to park in the hotel car park itself? Free last time I checked.

Yeah but small and in the light of this I’d assume they would start policing if it’s used by non hotel residents

As a former North Devonian, I’ve signed.

The whole area is dying out and I bet car parking charges have a lot to do with it.

Bideford and Westward Ho! are classic examples, there’s bugger all there so the best idea anyone can come up with is to put excessive car parking charges everywhere and then wonder why no one wants to shop there!

Bump for the evening crowd!

The car park owners have approached the local action group to “talk”……….

Well I’ve driven down there late at night many times and slept in car or the dunes, the whole area been attracting more wealthy visitors for over a decade when there was only ruda, cherry Tree and camping where the plastic wooden homes are now. It’s frighteningly expensive to take a family holiday there in season, the parking charges take the piss. It best to be national trust member and park towards baggy point. Place is swarming with range rover’s who won’t think twice about the prices. Shame but it’s becoming a superb of London. Apart from braunton which is full of brummies.

Saw this couple days ago, signed, shared etc, have family up the coast.

Greedy carpark managers 👿

clearly whats needed is someone with a crew boat/landing craft based near a car park in Instow/Appledore 😀

Duely signed.
Can’t help thinking It’d drive everyone away and rip the arse out of this beautiful beach.
I was down there two weekends ago in stunning weather and perfect surf. I spent the whole day on the beach, but if I was looking at spending £12 to do so, it would have been a different story.
I’m not a local, but if it were me, I’d put visitor parking up another quid and let locals use the beach for free.
It is their community after all.
Lots more discussion needed IMO.

I really don’t get the but we are local we should get free\cheap access, do you think this should be extended to cities ?

The people who are making lots of money from this are the Cristie estates Devon Trust who own thousands of acre’s in Devon more info below
http://www.northdevonjournal.co.uk//Major-landowner-Christie-Estates-parts-company/story-21211296-detail/story.html

Yes I do think it should extend to cities.
Why can’t locals enjoy their local facilities for a reduced rate?
If you wanted to walk your dog in a park five minutes from your house how happy would you be having to pay for the privilege of doing so?

Mikeypies, Cristie’s lease it out.

What scruff said. Mikeypies you need to get your facts straight.

Also…

Saunton Beach Action Group
2 hrs · Edited ·
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT – There will be a meeting tomorrow night at the Fortescue Club on Wrafton Road at 8PM. The meeting will be to give an update on where things are and agree on a suitable way forward with regards to Planning objections and the charging / 24 hr access etc. We would like to be able to put a proposal to the owners from the group at some point after the meeting. It will NOT be an evening to just air grievances about being charged for parking. It has to be a constructive positive meeting. We will also be looking for some helpers after the event as to be honest this thing has got huge and we need help! PLEASE keep an eye out tomorrow on here before attending in case anything changes, as we are doing this in between working, looking after our kids and walking the dogs……. Hopefully see some of you tomorrow

is the current situation.

i just use the toll road to crow point instead, cheaper and quieter or stick with Marine drive over at Woolacombe

Increasing the already excessive price isn’t really going to encourage anyone to use the car park, unless they know no better??

Mr nutt and scruff here are the facts please read them

Christie’s do own the land and have leased it out and have almost doubled the rent in the last 4 years and the council have put up buisness rates by 81%. So who do you think are responsible for an increase in the cost of parking.

personally I would rather the car park was owned by the council and run for the benefit of the community and visitors like the Northam burrows

That may be true but they used the “our costs have gone up” reasoning last year. As a business owner myself I can appreciate that.

Strangely they haven’t made any mention of it over this years proposal which leads to part of the anger. You’ve also got to question why the lease has got more expensive. Is it because Christies realized that the income from the car park was rising and wanted to see some of that themselves?

The car park is leased from Christies by the Tamlins a local couple. They are by no means the innocents in this

Also, it’s not just about cheap LOCAL access, it’s the size of the increase in cost and when those parking fees are expected to be paid. it’s also about the access of everyone and also the fact that a huge amount of jobs and the local economy is tied to access to these local natural resources

Ps FWIW it’s cheaper by far to buy a parking permit in Brighton. So yes, people in cities do expect cheaper parking!

Update

As of today……..

480 planning objections lodged. Unfortunately the highways agency weren’t that bothered either way but the parish council have voted to reject it.

Over 10,000 signatures on the petition, mentions on radio 2 and a whole segment on radio Devon. There’s been a meeting with our MP and the car park owners have requested “feedback” on their proposals until the end of November. They have said they will meet with representatives of the locals to discuss a way forward later this week.

They also say they do not intend to charge 24 hours but that they will charge based on “current charging/daylight hours” which hasn’t reassured anyone so far.

The general consensus (&what the action group are asking for) is that:

– hourly charging is ok at around £1/hour with a daily cap of £8.

– Charging hours should be declared now and ideally should be 8.30 – 5.30 or similar. This is in line with downed car park around the corner.

– season tickets should be available, ideally at less than last years £175 although I doubt they would be prepared to go lower than that.

– numbers of season tickets should not be limited to a low number or limited by geography.

– season tickets should have some provision for use by multiple vehicles (one at a time) by the same owner. This could be linked to cost.

Ultimately I suspect the planning will go through and then it depends on how fair and community minded they want to be.

Isn’t this just a private car park putting up its prices? The beach is still open and free access isn’t it? And if it’s locals complaining, how local are they really if they need to drive there?

Isn’t this just a private car park putting up its prices? The beach is still open and free access isn’t it? And if it’s locals complaining, how local are they really if they need to drive there?

Have you ever been to this car park? Realistically you can only get to this beach by car. walking from Braunton is dangerous and a long walk, There is a bus, which i seem to remember is hourly?? Local in this part of Devon means with in miles, not round the corner!

I have been there, and to croyde and woolacombe too. If you’ve got to drive anyway, it’s not too much inconvenience to keep going round the headland to equally good beaches where parking is cheaper. Sadly (?!) you live somewhere that’s a bit of a honeypot and can charge daft prices.

Well as a holiday maker down there every year.

I’m more than happy for locals to pay nowt/reduced fee …. good luck

My reasoning …. it’s a tax on me for getting in the way while poodling alone the country lanes in the car and fannying about in the line up 😀

Worth reiterating that the locals are happy to pay, they would just like to pay a reasonable amount compared to other beaches and compared to what it’s always cost in the past. It’s the massive increases in cost to continue with our daily lives people object to.

Whilst you can go to the other beaches (&people have been already) each beach has its own community and businesses attached. Croyde is a brilliant shortboard surfing wave, saunton is one of the best longboard surfing waves in the UK

THis I think is what some poeple don’t realise, a beach is often a hub for a local community, not just a destination/facility. As such there are strong feelings re. access/development/change that go beyond just ‘i dont want to pay more than i used to’