Cairngorm parking charges

[davekeiller]

Just stumbled upon this
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-44576069

It looks like the Coire Cas and Ciste car parks are now pay and display. I take it that somebody has pointed out that this means anyone going wildcamping from that side of the Cairngorms now has to advertise the fact to thieves?

[Sunset tripper]

It's a scourge spreading from the south invading the highlands a bit like the grey squirrels marching northwards.
Luckily thieves are not so widespread in this area yet!

[al78]

I don't see the problem with chargiong for parking. It costs money to provide and maintain car parks, why should there not be a charge? £2 a day is hardly going to break the bank.

[Border Reiver]

It depends how it's enforced. If I wanted to spend a few days camping in the mountains I would be happy to buy 3 or 4 24 hour tickets at once, but if the enforcing agency would only accept the correct ticket for each day, I would be faced with penalty charges. Personally, I'd be tempted to park on the road side a wee bit outside of the regulated car park, it's a public road and so far there's no restrictions on stopping or parking there. Same as at Glenmore where folk park opposite the reindeer centre.

[Sunset tripper]

I don't see the problem with chargiong for parking. It costs money to provide and maintain car parks, why should there not be a charge? £2 a day is hardly going to break the bank.

Yes I agree to a certain extent but you often finds it doesn't work like that. There is no guarantee it will stay at £2. In the lake district they are charging £3 minimum for half an hour in many places, with day parking truly extortionate in many parking areas. It is easy money and way more than it costs for maintaining the car parks.
If it is a private car park the charges may well be unenforceable, because so far Scotland doesn't pander to the parking companies and clamping gangs.

[davekeiller]

I don't have a principled objection to paying for parking either.
However, If I was heading out into the Cairngorms for a couple of nights, I'd feel a bit uncomfortable about advertising the fact by buying a three day parking ticket.

[Jon and Jen]

Highly unlikely that thieves will travel out so far on the off chance they might find an iPod in a car. Plenty easier pickings in the town's/cities.

[PerthAlly]

I parked there this morning to tackle Ben Macdui.

I was approached by someone in officialdom ( or looking like it! ). He handed me a leaflet explaining their list of works that the £2 contributes to. I was more than happy to stump up. If I parked in Perth for 5 hours it would cost more

He told me it isn't legally enforceable but I had no issue putting my hand in my pocket

[al78]

I don't see the problem with chargiong for parking. It costs money to provide and maintain car parks, why should there not be a charge? £2 a day is hardly going to break the bank.

Yes I agree to a certain extent but you often finds it doesn't work like that. There is no guarantee it will stay at £2. In the lake district they are charging £3 minimum for half an hour in many places, with day parking truly extortionate in many parking areas. It is easy money and way more than it costs for maintaining the car parks.
If it is a private car park the charges may well be unenforceable, because so far Scotland doesn't pander to the parking companies and clamping gangs.

If the price is inflated too much it will be cheaper for (single) people to take the bus from Aviemore, so maybe then can't hike it up too much, but I can appreciate your concern. With the Lake District, these days it strikes me as a formerly beautiful area which is gradually being ruined by masses of motor vehicles clogging up the roads and villages (not unlike my home town), in other words, a victim of its own success, so I can see why the authorities might want to try and discourage car use and encourage public transport use. The Lake District has a good bus service, or did when I went there many years ago and my car only got used one day out of a week, it was great for doing linear walks crossing groups of fells between valleys.

[al78]

It depends how it's enforced. If I wanted to spend a few days camping in the mountains I would be happy to buy 3 or 4 24 hour tickets at once, but if the enforcing agency would only accept the correct ticket for each day, I would be faced with penalty charges. Personally, I'd be tempted to park on the road side a wee bit outside of the regulated car park, it's a public road and so far there's no restrictions on stopping or parking there. Same as at Glenmore where folk park opposite the reindeer centre.

A shame if they can't offer the flexibility of multi-day tickets, the rail network can manage it with weekly season tickets. If I was doing a multi-day trek around the Cairngorms I would likely get the train to Aviemore and the bus to the ski center, which has the advantage of not needing to return to the place I started, but then again, I live in SE England and it is better for me to get to the highlands by sleeper train.

[NickyRannoch]

Breaking into a car can be done in a matter of seconds. A thief wont care if you are away for 3 days or three minutes.

I wonder if it will be like Linn of Dee where it is a charge per visit than per day ( I know they say it is a day rate but there is no facility to buy anything other than a 24 hour ticket)

[davekeiller]

Colleagues who ski wouldn't go to Cairngorm this past winter because they disagree with the way that the new management are running the ski area for short-term profit.
As I don't ski, I can't comment on all of the ins and outs of it, but it does strike me that the introduction of parking charges is motivated as much by the profit motive as raising money to invest in facilities. I'd be curious to find out how much money parking charges raise versus how much is actually spent on the upkeep of the car parks.

I agree that thieves can smash into cars very quickly, and that opportunists are probably more likely to stay closer to human habitation, but it still seems to me that it's unwise to advertise the fact that your car will be left unattended for two or three days.

[al78]

I agree that thieves can smash into cars very quickly, and that opportunists are probably more likely to stay closer to human habitation, but it still seems to me that it's unwise to advertise the fact that your car will be left unattended for two or three days.

It is not about how quickly a thief can break into a car, it is about how quickly they find it before deciding to break into it. It seems logical to me that a car left in a remote area for three days stands a greater chance of being found by a thief than a car left in the same place for three hours, but in the case of the Cairngorm car park, it is probably a very low risk anyway. You've probably a greater chance of being involved in a serious road accident getting too or from the car park.

[Sunset tripper]

A shame if they can't offer the flexibility of multi-day tickets, the rail network can manage it with weekly season tickets. If I was doing a multi-day trek around the Cairngorms I would likely get the train to Aviemore and the bus to the ski center, which has the advantage of not needing to return to the place I started, but then again, I live in SE England and it is better for me to get to the highlands by sleeper train.

I have got the train to Aviemore and just walked into the cairngorms from there but it is a much longer day using public transport, and it restricts your options. I don't think the charges are to encourage folk onto public transport but to make money.

I understand in the south east of England inflated parking charges are normal and widely accepted and £2 In the cairngorms seems insignificant but it is the charging because you can, and profiteering culture I disagree with.

It is no coincidence that the SE which is one of the richest places on the planet (with many people with massive personal wealth) has some of the worst congestion, road infrastructure and rail overcrowding in Europe.

[al78]

I have got the train to Aviemore and just walked into the cairngorms from there but it is a much longer day using public transport, and it restricts your options. I don't think the charges are to encourage folk onto public transport but to make money.

I understand in the south east of England inflated parking charges are normal and widely accepted and £2 In the cairngorms seems insignificant but it is the charging because you can, and profiteering culture I disagree with.

It is no coincidence that the SE which is one of the richest places on the planet (with many people with massive personal wealth) has some of the worst congestion, road infrastructure and rail overcrowding in Europe.

I don't think the charging has anything to do with traffic congestion. When I was in Aviemore last June and cycled along the ski road it was as quiet as the quieter country lanes in my area of the SE (and the road was a lot better maintained as well!). There is no way of knowing for sure the motives behind the parking charge. An optimist would say it will be used to increase investment in the facilities. A cynic will say it is to make money to line someones pocket.

The road congestion and overcrowding in the SE is because big companies want a London based head office (it has international prestige), so well paid jobs come up in London more frequently than other major urban areas, which attracts people to move down here. Unfortunately the land space is fixed, and if you pile more and more people into a fixed area the inevitable result is overcrowding.