Threat of legal action to council over camper van parking bay planned for Cobh

A group representing motorhome owners has jumped to the defence of a municipal district authority threatened with legal action after developing a parking site for camper vans.

Some caravan park owners in the east Cork area took exception to the Cobh-Glanmire Municipal District creating an overnight 30-unit parking bay in Cobh.

But Phoenix Motorhome Club, which has hundreds of members drawn mainly from the Munster region, believes the Cork County Council municipal authority should stick to its guns and retain the parking bay.

The club said the council body should not bow to threats of legal action.

The council recently opened the harbourside site at the town’s Five Foot Way and charges a small sum for overnight parking and the disposal of waste water.

Caravan park owners, however, have written to the municipal council claiming the project was anti-competitive and contrary to the Road Traffic Act.

A spokesman for Phoenix Motorhome Club said its members were “dismayed” at reports of the legal action and the risk of losing the site which looks onto Cork Harbour.

He said that overnight motorhome parking places were a common provision in the North, Britain and throughout mainland Europe, being a concept which began in France in the early 1980s.

“A trawl of the various motorhome-related websites will confirm that there are currently in excess of 20,000 such places in existence, ranging from modest four or five-bay places in small rural villages to some with over 300 bays at premier tourist destinations.

“Charges range from being free to about €13/€14 per 24 hours, depending on the time of season and demand, and the stay is normally limited to 48 hours,” the spokesman said.

He said motorhomes are, by EU definition, vehicles in the same category as private cars and are legally entitled to drive and park wherever it was legal to do so in a car.

The spokesman said the provision of an overnight parking space for camper vans and motor homes was an entirely different concept to the provision of a camping pitch.

He said both facilities would provide a different ‘product’ and serve a different segment of the tourist market.

“A parking space provides just that — a place to park a vehicle.

“The Cobh/Glanmire municipal district has wisely investigated how such places are managed in Britain and Europe and have drafted bye-laws which reflect best practice and which prohibit any activity at the parking place which is normally seen on a camping pitch in a caravan and camping park,” the spokesman said.

He also said his members believe the municipal council’s park was not in competition with caravanning and camping parks which will continue to be widely used.

“It is hoped that Cobh will be the first in a necklace of places where motorhome-based tourists can spend a day or so as they tour Ireland’s Ancient East or our 2,500-km Wild Atlantic Way — a driving route on which there is currently not one town with an official overnight parking facility, compared to Germany’s 350-km Romantic Road which boasts 19 such places.”