Grab a chair, kick off your shoes, chill and chat.
It would seem that the UK has been a bit slow on the uptake. I have already read of problems in Scotland, which has always allowed "wild" camping, with the freedoms being abused. But then councils need to do something about accommodating camping cars - they aren't going to go away.
"Van Life" has taken off with more and more smaller vehicles converted or adapted to touring, so more and more people taking to the roads.
France saw this coming years ago and has adapted well over the last few years to accommodate camping carists. Car parks have height barriers to stop overnight camping and I think it's illegal to just park up at the side of the road as is permitted in Scotland**. However, communes on the coast round here have created large camping car parks with gravel or tarmac and they are being used more and more all year round. There is a small charge and drivers can fill up with water and empty their septic tanks.
As a result, there is no problem round here with lines of camping cars parked along coastal roads. Camping carists don't seem to mind being parked cheek by jowl in a car park .... We did have to laugh at a case of incivilities in the next village - most camping carists out of the school holidays are old farts
Sadly "traditional" campsites here are becoming a rarity these days as it's more lucrative to provide accommodation in mobile homes or chalets. Clearly the French have more money to spend on holidays as fewer are happy to sleep in a tent. We finally cracked and bought a caravan in our early 60s - a bed was so much more comfortable for older bones than a Lilo on the ground !
** Apparently according to the Code de la Route, there are no distinctions between a camping car and an ordinary car. Without digging into it, perhaps communes can stop camping cars parking in certain places and if they can, I'm sure the paper work is extremely onerous .....
