I do not, at least personally, have any gripe against 'weekenders', except for of course natural irritation and the usual profanity when i find my plans thrown into disarray from such an event. I also recognise the Bank Holidays are of particular importance to many people and usually try to avoid them in order to release pitches for others. What I feel is becoming of concern however, is that it is not just the Bank Holidays where the 'full up' signs are being shown, but on consecutive weekends even out of high season. It is often only the Saturday night where this occurs and is indeed frustrating to spend all week, and have to leave for Saturday, but be welcomed back on Sunday. It is doubly frustrating to have to scrabble around for a pitch for the 1 night as often other sites in the area have the same 'full up' signs outside. The C&CC has been mentioned and of course they only allow bookings for 2 nights or more at weekends, so one can be doubly 'whammied' for the sake of Saturday. Yes, I also accept that CL's are available and will be looking more and more at these, but again in certain areas, these also are booked up. The 'problem' also does seem to be restricted to sites in certain areas, the SE England and the NE England in particular seem to have this problem. I accept that is where there is a high density of population but it does rather restrict anyone else visiting. One site I have found to be bad in this respect is Ferry Meadows, which is a huge site but can be chokka for the Saturday night. It is indeed a nice area and I like to visit it possibly once per year, but does every local have to go there every weekend??
As a now retired person, I would also point out that for my '40 years' I was also a working soul and only had weekends and the annual holiday. However, I always wanted to explore just a little bit further than the 'end of my street' and a drive of say 50 miles or so was not excessive on a Friday night. I wanted the kids to see other things in their life, not just remain in the same circle of friends, however I also recognise that others prefer that way of life.
As for an answer?? I do not have an easy one. There are more and more retired people in the UK so the situation is not going to get better, and they do have increased spending power (at least usually), so the market is moving in that direction. The CC will have to come up with an answer and I do not envy them that task. Possibly copying the C&CC is one way forward, but the CC seems to object on principle of doing anything that 'the other lot' have devised.
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