Sunset tripper wrote:al78 wrote:Sunset tripper wrote:These Dick Turpin parking outfits have been rife in England and Wales for years and years and widely accepted by the locals. That's why it's no big deal.
The most worrying thing is that the greedy disease is spreading north virtually unopposed with many, of the generally well off, hill walkers saying they are quite happy to pay a fiver for parking because they drive a car and are loaded anyway, or words to that effect.
The real issue is that the present scottish government is turning Scotland into the same place they want to be independent from.
I would struggle to take almost anyone seriously if they own a car and claim they can't afford an occasional fiver for parking. The cost of owning and running a car is hundreds of pounds a year, so very poor people wouldn't be able to afford a car. If you pay £5 for parking once a fortnight that is £120 per year. I can almost guarentee there is a way to compensate for that expense in a year by reigning in spending money on other frivolous things.
So where does it all end?
Why didn't you happily pay the £18 or £40 to park at Pen y pass?
It sounds like you could have easily compensated for that by
"reigning in spending money on other frivolous things".
He's got a point tbf. Being able to own/lease, run, insure and fuel a car for X amount of money then complaining that you can't afford a fiver once in a blue moon to park it for a hillwalk is nonsense. The charges in Wales are a bit mental and obviously designed to relieve tourists of money, however I don't think charges in Scotland are that unreasonable. £2 for Glen Doll for example, and £4 the last time I was at Glen Muick are hardly exhorbitant especially since both of these have facilities which need maintenance.
Are parking charges in Scotland really that big a deal? I've done nearly 400 hills including repeats, corbetts, grahams etc and i doubt I've even paid to park more than 10 times in 9 years.