A Present from MotorhomeParking.co.uk

gjh

Jul 28, 2011
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In March 2007 I created a set of 1200 Motorhome Parking POIs for use on TomTom sat nav devices. In the following four and a half years the set was updated regularly, eventually containing some 1637 records. Versions were also made available for use on Garmin devices, Google Earth and Autoroute.

Unfortunately several people (including supposedly reputable companies) decided that copyright conditions didn't apply to them so they made copies of the POI set and loaded them to their own download web sites (sometimes even with a charge before a full download was possible) as if they had put in all the effort to create the set. Apart from infringing copyright by their action they also failed to keep the data up to date and omitted to include the caveats which are detailed below.
Subsequently, scheduling of regular updates was disrupted by family bereavement and the incidence of ongoing plagiarism (in flagrant breach of copyright conditions) resulted in the decision to discontinue putting in the effort just to be ripped off and the POI set was removed from the site.

I always kept a copy of the POIs for personal use and I have now decided to try publishing them again in the hope that the plagiarists will have been deterred. If that is a vain hope then publication will cease again and I will take all legal action available in order to obtain damages for breach of copyright.

The POI set has been completely revised as part of this process.
The original set contained some entries which, with the benefit of hindsight, were only suitable for smaller motorhomes and camper vans. The new set has been designed (hopefully successfully) to include only parking places suitable for vehicles of up to about 25 feet long and up to 3.5 tonnes in weight. There will be many more places where smaller vehicles can be parked (especially if they fit into a single standard sized bay) but there are very few places within the new set which will cater for larger vehicles like American RVs.
In addition there were some places which (again with the benefit of hindsight) were dubious because they depended on personal opinion such as advice to overhang plant beds (ignoring the fact that plants grow), the mere absence of a height barrier in a relatively small car park or "attendants may allow it" which could be very hit and miss. Such places have been removed.
The original set also contained some supermarket car parks. They have all been removed as POIs for them are available from the supermarket companies themselves which ensure they are kept up to date. Also, some car parks have simply ceased to exist or have had height restrictions added because of abuse.
On the other hand, as a result of continued research (as opposed to simply waiting for people to suggest places), it has been possible to add several hundred extra sites. These have come not only from local authorities but the likes of National Parks, Water Companies, Forestry Commissions and various other bodies.

As a result it has been possible to build an initial set of 1653 places and it can now be downloaded from www.motorhomeparking.co.uk.

I hope a few people find it useful.

Graham
 
Nov 19, 2010
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I'm sure a LOT of people will find this useful Graham. Thank you so much, for the work you've put into this, and for all you do on behalf of all of us.
I hope the rip-off merchants take notice, but sadly I'm not holding my breath.
Happy Christmas, to you and yours.
 

gjh

Jul 28, 2011
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I've been doing some more research, especially in the Highland Council area since I had a FoI response from them and into car parks provided by the Forestry Commission. As a result the POI dataset now contains 2038 entries.

Graham
 

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