As we all know caravans and motorhomes are becoming more and more expensive but the industry as a whole seems to be thriving so where do these people take their camping units?
As i was growing up caravans and motorhomes were always the natural progression from camping in tents. People and families would often start in a tent to see if they like the great outdoors and if they did then they would progress to owning a camper or a caravan. Caravans and campers were in the most part affordable and holidaying in a caravan or a camper was often a low cost way of getting away with family and friends. Rallying emerged as a low cost way of making the most of your caravan or camper and it had the added benefit of being able to meet up with like minded friends on a more regular basis. Whilst there has always been the formal sites and the less formal CL sites rallying became an integral part of the monthly calendar.
So whats changed?
It would be fair to say that there are several forces which may have altered the way people view camping and caravaning.
The first is that camping or more specifically tenting seems to be reserved for the younger individuals and families that like to get away occasionally and see tenting as an affordable way of having a break during the school holidays.
The second is that camping units such as caravans and larger motorhomes have become so much more expensive and people are less inclined to use those types of units on farmers fields.
The third is that a significant number of small campers need amenity facilities such as WC's, showerblocks, and washing up facilities therfore they are not equiped to camp off grid in a field.
The fourth is that society has changed and people in general want to be closer to facilities, attractions and places of interest, therefore remote farmers fields are less attractive.
There are of course many other reasons why rallying seems to be declining and these are just a few points we have dicussed.
Campsites offer alot for a wide range of individuals and families. they are often located in areas near local attractions and they cater for most units. The downside of the campsite is that they can be expensive and places are often limited with space sometimes at a premium. Pitches are typically £25-60 per night depending on the location and the amount of people staying.
CL's provide a very useful mid range addition to the camping venue range. These site are often on farms but the have the benefit of some fixed facilities such as, electric, water, waste, elsan, refuse areas and even showers on some. With basic facilities the are less costly then the all signing all dancing sites. Typically they are around £15-30 per night.
Rallies remain at the lower end of the camping spectrum with prices ranging from £10 -£20 per night. Rally's are generally priced between £15-40
for the weekend. They often include, entertainment in the form of a social gathering and or quizes and there are always friendly and welcoming.
They continue to be a great way to meet people that are like minded.
Sadly, Rallying is in decline and centres across the country continue to close due to lack of interest both in running the centres and attending the centre events. The CAMC are trying to support rallying but this seems to have a limited affect. We therefore need to look after our centres by helping out, making one in, attending events and taking an interest in what they are trying to do. Over the past few years at least 20 centres have either folded, gone into hibernation or had to merge. Covid has had a effect but i think the biggest effect is participation and as a society we dont like to role our sleeves up and get involved. Sadly for alot of centres the time is now for volunteers to get involved and help out.
Here at the Yorkshire Dales Centre we think rallies provide a great affordable way of getting out into the countryside whilst meeting like minded people, friends and family. ALL rallies provide a safe environment for all ages and we would encourage anyone to try it.
If you would like to try rallying then please canotact me on secretary@ydcc.co.uk
Sadly we had to cancel our Autmn Ball or Dinner dance as it used to be know due to the lack of numbers. Tradtionally the dinner dance was as it says on the tin, a dinner and dancing. The dress cose was formal and the dancing was too, there were often speaches and visiting dignatary's from other centres that would often be asked to participate. The Dinner Dance was always well attended and a good excuse to have a party, get dressed up and let your hair down. As times have changed WE think there's less of an appetite for the formal elements of a traditional dinner dance and so weve ditched the speaches, the black ties and the cocktail dresses in favour of a more relaxed approach. We still want people to get dressed up (smart casual) and come and have a great time, listen to some great music acts and maybe even have a dance at the disco. This year the committee have decided (after holding the the Diner Dance at the Gamekeepers Inn (Longashes) for a number of years), to freshen things up further by moving the venue. It is hoped that this years venue will help atract more attendees, as it's a little more central and within good road access from all directions. We have chosen the Bridge Inn at Walshford near Wetherby . We have secured a room for the evening and the overflow carpark will be used for those wishing to attend in their camping unit. For those that don't want to bring their motorhome or caravan there are rooms available at the hotel to book at a discounted rate, providing you are attending the event. The evening will consist of a complimentary welcome drink, a 3 course meal, a live entertainer, followed by a disco. Again the details will be on the booking system shortly, however, if you want anymore details please contact the sectary at Secretary@YDCC.co.uk
We hope you have had a fantastic festive period and you are now looking forward to gettign out in your van this spring and summer. We have a great Rally Programme planned which can be found on our website under events, as we really look forwrad to seeign you on one of our rallies. Lets hope the weather improves and we can get out and about but im sure we wont let the weather spoil what is going to be a great summer of camping.
As most of you are aware the YDC committee is small and not so perfectly formed group of six people. I n times past the committee was a much larger and in some cases more effective group of 15 people. The six of us, have therefore had to work exceptionally hard to maintain the centre as it is currently. Our continued aim has been and continues to be to run the centre and the centre events for our centre members and to make the events we organise the best we can. However, it is becoming increasing difficult to facilitate this on an yearly basis. Vehicles are becoming, more expensive to buy, insure and run. Landowners are wanting more an more for their land and there are now more organisations providing similar events and experiences. In short we are finding ourselves investing lots of time into things that we have never had to do before. Over the last 2-3 years we have worked really hard at modernising the centre, implimenting a new online booking system, a new online payments system, a new website, a new email marketing system a new accounts software package all of which have allowed the commitee to keep moving the centre forward. We have reduced the amount of paperwork, reworked alot of the traditional processes and even taken the centre into the cloud with our online storage facility. All this has all been great but we know we need more focus on our members and to do that we need assistance from our members. Over the forthcoming months we are looking to engage our entire membership but in particular those that have rallied with us in the last few years in order to establish a sustainable process for finding great venues and people to organise rallies at those venues. In the first instance we need to establish what our members would like and therefore it is our intention to send out surveys (via email and facebook) on venues and also what people would like to see on our rallies. Once we have this information we will prepare next years rally calendar based on the information collected. Similarly we would like more volunteers to help us both on the commitee and more generally by running Rallies. Without Rally Marshalls we wouldnt be able to hold rallies and therefore i would like to take this opertunity to thank all those members that have helped by volunteering, and organising events for us. Birthday Celebrations As some of you will be aware next year 2025 is our centres 50th Anniversay and we intend to celebrate this with a celebration Rally. We would like volunteers to help organise the Rally and the events on the Rally over the forthcoming year. We hope to establish a small sub committee of memebrs that will take responsibilty for organising, agreeing the costs and running the Rally. At this stage we have Newby Hall booked for the venue but the rest is openbook. If you would be interested in helping out being on the organising committee then please contact me - secretary@YDCC.co.uk
You will be glad to hear we are heading to the lakes again this May Bank Holiday with plenty of opertunities to sample all the Lake District and all it has to offer. We are holding two rallies the first of which is at the Grasmere Sports Field and it runs from friday the 24th May until Monday the 27th May 2024 although there are extra nights available if required. The Sports field is ideally located within walking distance of the main village centre of Grasmere where there are a number of outdoor shops, art galleries, pubs and restaurants. If its walking you want there are an abundance of walks around the local area including gentle walks around the Lakes (Grasmere and Rydal) and more challeging walks such as the Coffin Walk and the Easdale Tarn. If you are looking for something thats a little more hard core then there's severall walks such as Alcock Tarn, Silver Howe and the Lion and the Lamb all of which offer spectacular views of Grasmere Water, Rydal Water and lake Windermere. Please ask at the rally marshalls office for information on any of these, you never know you may even get a guided tour (if your lucky!!) The second of our rallies is to be held at Ambleside which is a short hop, skip and a jump south on the main A591. The Rugby club is situated to the southern edge of Ambleside village between the park, the road to coniston and the head of lake windemere. The site is flat as you would expect froma rugby pitch and this year we have access to the rugby club which im told has a bar and may be serving a food on various nights. Access to the club will also allow us to use the changing and showering facilities when required. Again there lots to do in Ambleside, whether its walking shopping, mountain bikeing or padlleboarding on the lake itself. From ambleside you can catch the ferry to bowness and also theres the local bus service running between bowness and keswick and i understand it to be £2 and you can hop on an off as you like. Details will shortly be on the booking system, however, if you need any more advice please feel free to contact the secratary at secretary@ydcc.co.uk
Please see attached proposals for changes of Rule 6, 8, 18 and 20. The content will be discussed further at the AGM Sunday 17th March 2024 @ Eldwick Village Hall. Meeting starts at 11am.
Since rallying began it has always been a cost effective way of getting away from it all. Back in the day, rallying was fairly low key but the work involved with organising a rally was quite time consuming. With that in mind, the committee are very aware of how busy families are these days. The committee are working very hard to make the organisation of a rally quicker and more simple for you to do if you decide to give it a go. The fun and enjoyment of organising a rally far and away trumps the work involved in organising it. Don't forget, there is always help and advice around it required! You won't be left to do it all yourselves. If you feel that it is something that you would like to try then please let any member of the committee know. Over the past two to three years we have been working hard behind the scenes on a number of different levels, firstly we have been updating the way we keep and share records. GDPR legislation has meant that we have had to have a centralised database of information that can be accessed, controlled and updated by the committee upon request and therefore we have had to invest time and money into migrating all our records into the cloud. Similarly, and something our members are already be aware of as its been in use for a couple of years is the booking system that allows members to book rallies. The booking system offers information at our fingertips in real-time. This allows the committee and the rally marshals access to who has booked rally's. It also gives insight into where they have been booked and when for. It has allowed us to bring in nightly pricing, which in turn offers the person rallying a greater choice of stay duration on all of our rallies, not just our holiday rallies as it has been in the past. The booking system also allows for taking pre-payment by BACs and in time, the facility will be there where card payments can be introduced. The software has been teamed up with YDC's new cloud based accounting package that gives real-time access to the payments being received through the bank and card systems. Information on booking trends, venues and rally events also mean the system we have developed provides valuable data on how popular different rally venues are so that when we start to compile the rally calendar for the forthcoming year and we can do it with the knowledge, where and why the location/activity are popular. One of the biggest changes we have implemented is that we now organise the rally programme through the committee. This has partly been down to the fact that we haven't been able to fill the vacant Rally Secretary's role and also partly down to the reasons outlined above. A major pressure the centre is currently experiencing is that rally site fees are increasing, as is the majority of the economy. The more caravans that are sited on a rally, the cheaper the costs will be. If any members have any sites/fields that have not been visited before, which they feel would be a good addition to the rally calendar, please get in touch with a committee member who can organise a call with the landowner. We hope in the work that we are continuing to do that we are making things simpler and therefore easier for people to become involved. We would like to share our successes with more members both on the rally field, at our events and even on our committee. The YDC has always been a sociable centre and we would like to continue this by promoting a fresh, friendly and positive approach to being a volunteer, member or rally marshal.
