Bylaw to ban overnight stays by camper vans in coastal village ruled out for now

A bylaw banning camper vans from overnight stays in a Northumberland coastal village has been ruled out.
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Alnmouth Parish Council has taken the decision not to pursue the idea any further, at least for the time being, on the back of advice from Northumberland County Council.

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Chairman Shaun Whyte said: “Bylaws require quite an extensive process and we would need to justify their introduction in terms of harm that the activity is causing and also that existing laws were not sufficient.

Camper vans at the Alnmouth beach car park.Camper vans at the Alnmouth beach car park.
Camper vans at the Alnmouth beach car park.

"People parking within the village is not desirable as far as residents are concerned but it’s probably not bad enough to justify the introduction of bylaws because a high standard of harm to the locality is required.

"We will obviously keep an eye on it and these are still early days in the camper van problem. If is escalates even more next year with the closure of the road down to the dunes on the other side of the estuary it’s entirely possible that we’ll have an even bigger problem.”

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Cllr George Ternent said: “On the common we’ve just about stopped them staying overnight but in the village there were six the other night and several residents of Riverside Road have complained to me.

Cllr Whyte responded: “I’ve also had a resident on to me about it and there were four or five when I went down to have a look.

"Unfortunately, I think you’ve got to have four or five every night and discharging waste water into the road before we’ve got a very strong case for a bylaw being introduced.

"Four or five down there is not pleasant and residents don’t want it but it’s not actually illegal.”

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Similar concerns have been raised in Bamburgh, Seahouses and Beadnell.

Cllr Gordon Castle, local county councillor, said: “It’s obviously understandable at the moment that people want to take their families and be less at risk in a camper van but none of us anticipated the number we’ve got.”

Read More
Read more: Concerns raised at overnight parking by camper vans in Seahouses

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