In reply to Jon's message:(It is a shame that you have to close it - isn't there a way of taking a credit card deposit & then keeping it if people don't follow the rules? Or , cld you not reduce the number of large groups etc staying? There must be a way around this ?)
Hi Jon, we appreciate your comments and suggestions and have considered these and many other options, but there are reasons why these won't work.
Firstly, a lot of people ignore the signs on the entrance to the field about getting permission to camp and buying tickets in the pub, they just drive in pitch up and don't bother paying. The only way this could be controlled is to have someone permanently situated on the gate for when people arrive, which is not viable. Therefore a credit card / deposit system wouldn't work. Also, how would we put a value on noise/litter/abuse/vandalism? How would we decide who the offenders were without controlling the site all night long? (the latest wild party peaked about 5am). How would we stop the offenders from leaving early in the morning before the site could be checked?
Regarding limiting large groups, generally if these people come in to buy tickets, they do so in smaller groups, so we can't tell they are part of a big crowd, and it's not necessarily the large groups that cause the worst trouble. Everyone seems fine when they check in and we don't want to be put in the position of having the decide who looks "decent" and who will abuse our property.
A couple of weeks ago some "quiet" campers did ask a group who were partying very late to quieten down and they were given a load of verbal abuse. What if this had escalated into a fight? We can't let this problem carry on.
There are some really great people who come and use the camping field, for example 2 lads from Middlesbrough came up last winter and spent several days rebuilding our stone walls, these have already been demolished by this years firestarters!
It is unfortunate for the majority of campers, and we are sorry, but this is our private property and our customers who are suffering the abuse. We don't have the desire or resources to patrol the field 24 hours a day as we are trying to run a busy pub and we need to concentrate on doing this.
Once again Jon, thanks very much for taking the time to comment.