Residents on Canal Side, in Beeston, Nottingham, say they are fed up of van-dwellers pitching up on a 500m (1,640ft) stretch of road which allows overnight parking
Residents are up in arms as their picturesque riverside homes are apparently being spoiled by campervan tourists exploiting a legal loophole, turning their street into a makeshift ‘holiday camp’. The locals of Canal Side, in Beeston, Nottinghamshire, have had enough of van-dwellers setting up camp on a 500m stretch of road that permits overnight parking.
They argue that the campervanners create noise pollution and obstruct their view of the Nottingham and Beeston Canal, which connects to the River Trent. Residents also complain about vans being left parked for months at a time and visitors discarding human waste into drains, onto grass verges and into the canal.
The road is even promoted on the Park 4 Night app as a ‘beautiful spot by the canal on a quiet street’. As there are currently no overnight parking restrictions on the road, Nottinghamshire County Council are powerless to penalise the drivers.
Irate locals are calling on councillors to close the loophole that allows the road to be used as an overnight stop-over. Retired communications engineer Graham Cowlishaw, 84, who has resided in the area for over four decades, said the vans had marred the area’s natural beauty.
The great-grandad-of-five expressed his frustration: “The camping on the grass verge of the canal is a sorry state. I don’t know what you can do about it because the council have their hands tied by the law.”
“Most of the people staying in the vans are full-timers and they don’t appear to work. They’ve got rubbish outside, stones, piles of wood – it’s not a pretty site.
“It’s been going on for a few months and people living on the road are sick of it. It’s not right when we all pay our taxes and take care to make our homes and gardens look decent. I’ve heard reports that people have complained about them chucking human waste in the canal, which – if true – is just horrible.
“I’ve lived here for 40 years and it’s gradually gone downhill. Are they doing anything illegal? I don’t know. I don’t think we can do anything about them. At the very least it’s an eyesore and it can get noisy.”
Properties on the street, situated in the Rylands district of the town, typically cost around £290,000 with most locals being a mixture of pensioners and young families. Local Geoff Green, 72, claimed he had witnessed some of the campers disposing of human waste near his property.
He said: “I’ve had people emptying their effluent down the grate outside my property. It’s totally ruining the area, and it’s getting worse.. How long is it until the whole of the Rylands is like a big holiday camp?”
Another local, who wished only to be identified as Tony due to safety fears, added: “I saw a woman chuck all the stuff from out her toiletries into the canal. I found out she’d been here for three-and-a-half years with kids.
“Some of the people there might be staying for just the odd night but the majority live there permanently and it’s not right. They are taking advantage of the lack of road restrictions. We used to enjoy views of the canal and the fields and countryside beyond. Now all we see is white vans and big motorhomes.”
Another neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, added: “It’s not good parking opposite residential bungalows. The worst thing is that they aren’t committing a crime parking in a street.
“But two rolled up last night and the smell of cannabis was coming into our bungalow. I’ve seen effluent being dumped across the road. We’ve been here 20 years but recently it’s turned into a campsite.
“It’s got worse. It’s a lovely spot opposite the canal and it’s a lovely spot. You get a mixture of people who stay overnight, those who come back and then those who stay for a long time. Some have boats but a lot don’t.
“Now they sit on the verge and smoke cannabis. It’s like a campsite. It’s a major bus route and it’s not a very wide road. It was a dead-end and it didn’t lead anywhere. It was lovely and quiet but since Covid everyone got into their heads to buy a camper van. Most people wouldn’t want a motorhome outside your house all the time.”
Some of the campervan dwellers have defended their right to stay on the road, accusing some locals of being ‘aggressive’ towards them. Angela, 69, and Kevin Fleming, 71, often park by the canal when they travel from their home in Lincoln to visit their son, who lives nearby.
Angela stated: “We’re parked near one particular house but they can still see out and everything. One neighbour was aggressive to me but his wife was lovely.
“We’re only here for one night and I’m actually here seeing family. We’re not doing anything wrong. We don’t leave any mess, we’ve got a couple of dogs, but we clean up after each other.
“We’ve seen people tipping rubbish into the canal and we’ve seen it, but we don’t do it. There’s no double yellow lines. Some of the people here are long term and are sleeping in cars, some of them are here full-time. I’ve got grandkids so this is why we’ve come down.”
Councillor Teresa Cullen, representing Beeston Central and Rylands, recently held a public meeting to discuss the issue, which was attended by more than 100 residents. She commented: “If you come on a Friday or Saturday evening, it’s campervan city, all the way along.
“Problems occur when there’s people without the proper facilities. There’s nothing illegal in sleeping in a caravan by the side of a canal on a residential street but it isn’t nice to tip your rubbish out on the floor.”
A representative from Nottinghamshire County Council stated: “We will consider if the parked vehicles on Canal Side are now having a significant adverse effect upon other users of the highway and the surrounding community and what actions we might take to reduce those impacts such as consulting on introducing parking restrictions.”
