UKC

When are we allowed overnight stays, ie wild camping?
Thought I knew the answer but cannot find it on GOV website.

No idea, but if you're doing it right, no one will know

From Monday, in England.

from tomorrow

Members of the same household can take a holiday in England in self-contained accommodation

from 17th May

Domestic overnight stays allowed with people not in your household or bubble

Hotels, hostels and B&Bs can reopen

from June 21st

All hell breaks lose

I don't think you will get a precise answer to wild camping - Not sure this government believes in it. If you do, I would be quite careful where I left my car as some local communities may take their interpretation of the rules into their own hands. We seem to be becoming a less forgiving and reactionary society. Hopefully the summer will see some of that change.

Its not that hard to Google.  Right now:

"Staying away from home overnight

You should not stay overnight in a second home, caravan or boat, if that is not your primary residence, unless it is necessary to do so. For example, for work, moving home, to attend a medical appointment, or to avoid injury, illness or harm (including domestic abuse). You should not be going on holiday at this stage."

As of tomorrow:

"self-contained accommodation will be able to open for overnight stays in England with your household or support bubble".  Self contained means having necessary toilet facilities, etc.

"you should continue to minimise the amount that you travel where possible"

But what does “necessary toilet facilities” mean? I’m surprised no one has started a thread about this.

Not shared ?  Since wild camping isn't actually allowed in England and Wales I assume the legislators didn't think it necessary to add "don't shit in the woods"

You're never really "allowed" to go wild camping in England and Wales (with a few exceptions) so you're not going to find any guidance or law saying you can now. People do wild camp generally without problem, but I reckon landowners, police, annoyed members of the public etc. might be more touchy about it this year. Be sensible and low profile I guess.

It’s a pity nobody is taking a blind bit of notice, couple of overnight campervans parked up at Tilberthwaite yesterday (one right in front of the no overnight stay signs) also never seen so many bike packing setups in the lakes before, seen at least 10-15 this weekend alone....

Been quite a few vans on Dartmoor for the last couple of weeks, clearly staying overnight. 

Real shame that some can't follow the rules.

All the holiday parks are on final grass cutting, taking down the heras fence and getting ready for tomorrow.  Fingers crossed that the infection rates stay nice and low.

Everyone has a right to escape the awfulness of the lockdown! I hate to think how busy it will be when things actually open. Some 'off' behaviour pushes others to take a chance which doesn't help whilst others are still very fearful of coming out and see the 'offenders' as risking their health. 

Locally loads of motor trail bikes have been regularly going up over the hill, makes a bit of bouldering look very innocuous, although there was quite a lot of debate about that last summer. 

I wonder if there are any jobs in New Zealand?

Mm, no.  Everyone has the responsibility to adhere to it.

T.

Staying overnight away from your primary residence with only your household hasn't been illegal since 29th March, but is against government guidelines until tomorrow when self contained accomodation is allowed to reopen. So wild camping is already back to being only its normal level of not allowed

Thanks, for avoidance of doubt Iv followed all lockdown stay at home rules for the past year, no sneaky trips out, I was only asking cos I didn’t want to accidentally break some guidance at this stage.

I’m sure, when it was published, I interpreted the Gov road map out of lockdown that tomorrow was the date, however I cannot find the reference now. 
I don’t know if it’s been subtly dropped, as have one or two other points, just to avoid opening the flood gates to the masses. 
 

Regarding Wild Camping being illegal, that’s  genuinely news to me and by complete coincidence UKC just published an article on Wild Camping just yesterday.  
Why promote something that’s illegal?

some bastards in tents on the Lakeshore near Keswick this morning complete with campfire

This sort of thing really winds me up, there was some last year during lockdown on the shore of Brotherswater, even out of lockdown that’s taking the piss, I was all for going vigilante on their no doubt hungover asses and pulling tents pegs out when we went past but the Mrs convinced me not to...

It means a toilet.  And perhaps also a washbasin.  But one that's exclusively yours, not a shared toilet block (or the woods).  So campsites with toilet blocks will be staying shut until May (other than for vans/caravans with their own bog on board, and for 'glamping' pods and the like with a dedicated dunny).  Wild camping remains slightly more illegal than usual until then too, I reckon, on account of the erm.. facilities being shared.  Even if you do dig your own personal hole.

No ones mentioned tents with your own personal toilet tent how about that, to me its no different than having  a mobile home with its own loo, cant find any info on that one though, anyone got any idea? 

You can book with the camping and caravan club with a tent and your own sanitation for later this month (just looked) so that seems to be OK

Ok thanks 👍

A couple of comments on here that camp sites in England can open but can't provide toilet facilities until May 17th.  According to a post on the North Lees website that is not correct, camp site toilets can open with effect from 12 April.  This makes a big difference.  Quote below. 

"We are opening on the 12th April in line with The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Steps) (England) Regulations 2021. And within Schedule 2, Part 2, Paragraph 12, Sub-paragraph 5 (Page 57) which states:

Holiday accommodation referred to in sub-paragraph (1) may continue to be provided if that accommodation is provided— (a) in a campsite or caravan park, provided that the only shared facilities used by guests at the campsite or caravan park are washing facilities, toilets, water points and waste disposal points, or (b) in separate and self-contained premises.

The full legislation can be viewed here  https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2021/364/schedule/2/paragraph/12/made"

That guidance has changed now. Campsites are allowed to open from 12th April (today) in England with shared toilet facilities. 

That's quite exciting - when did that change?

Is this is older legislations dealing with closures ?

Sub paragraph 1 reads:

12.—(1) Subject to sub-paragraphs (2) to (5), a person responsible for carrying on a business consisting of the provision of holiday accommodation situated in the Step 2 area, whether in a hotel, hostel, bed and breakfast accommodation, holiday apartment, home, cottage or bungalow, campsite, caravan park or boarding house, canal boat or any other vessel must cease to carry on that business.

(2) A person referred to in sub-paragraph (1) may continue to carry on their business and keep any premises used in that business open—

Erm..  Yes.  You're quite right, I was a few days out of date when I posted.  (Apparently the guidance was updated on the 8th.)

As I understand it now (and it's quite possible I'm still wrong) campsites in England can open with shared toilets from today, but shower blocks will be staying shut.

Please post your source.

That is a big change if true.  Would have thought that would have got some press coverage?

From the info on the North Lees web site it seems the law hasn't changed.  Simillarly the Govt gudelines on toilets in camps sites hasn't changed.   See https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19/hote...

It seems clear that shared toilets on camp sites in England can open from April 12 but there are limits on showers. 

OK toilets but no showers, I'm not sure many responsible campsites will be rushing to provide this service, the thought of a day on the hill and no showers doesn't exactly fill me with joy either....

Which seems a bit strange as the showers aren't generally the good old footie style all in together type. If the loos,  the basins etc were OK, you would have thought the showers would be too?

More chance of water splashing around out of cubicles whihc is beyond their control I'm guessing whereas using toilets handwashing afterwards is the norm.

You can live without showering but you can't without taking a dump. By taking showers out of the equation you are halving the amount of time someone is in a contained space. It's not too bad; places like Eric Bynes can open and if you really need a wash then take a basin with you and get your bod out f't lads. I can't say it makes total sense to stagger the facilities that campsites can provide like that but considering I have a week off at the end of April, it's good news for me. 

For reference, the guidance from 12th April is:

"Campsites and caravan parks will be permitted to open for leisure stays provided that the only shared facilities used by guests at the campsite or caravan park are receptions, washing facilities (including facilities for laundering clothes), public toilets, baby changing rooms, breastfeeding rooms, water points and waste disposal points. Shower facilities should be operated so as to ensure no household mixing takes place. This would involve either assigning shower facilities to one household group/support bubble, (i.e. making them private), or running a reservation and clean process (whereby one household can exclusively book the shared facilities for a fixed time, and the facilities are cleaned between reservations and kept well-ventilated). Other facilities - receptions, facilities for laundering clothes, public toilets, baby changing rooms, breastfeeding rooms, water points and waste disposal points - should be cleaned regularly and kept well-ventilated and guests should try where possible to limit their interaction with other households whilst using these facilities."

Wild camping is illegal without the land owner's permission in England and Wales (but not  Scotland).

However many of us do so, or aspire to. The BMC obviously recognizes this and and in their last article I read on the subject it mentions that one should be inconspicuous and leave no trace etc.

A group of us have just booked an English camp site with toilet for Mayday bank holiday ( ie before May 17).  

In current situation I can happily go 4 nights without a shower if it means we can go on a trip, we will all smell just as bad.  I would struggle going 4 days without a poo 

Agreed, a couple of days without a shower is fine.

I even managed after cycling to a campsite in 35 degree heat last summer (I didn't plan it this way but the site was booked and my friend was keen). The site only had cold water taps and a compost loo. I warmed up some water in my jetboil, put it in a folding bowl (I keep one specifically for this purpose) and had a good wash in my tent with a flannel. Babywipes would also have done the job but I was trying to be less wasteful.

Most places don't seem aware of this change or if they are they aren't inclined to operate this way.

Last summer we camped at a place that assigned us timeslots for the showers which was also fine.

At times I've gone ~a week without a shower. I washed my feet in a Sea to Summit Kitchen Sink every day (got to look after your feet) but it's not that bad to not shower. If you're camping multiple days then you don't generally have a fresh pair of clothes every day anyway so what's the point of getting fresh pits then sticking on sweaty garms? No one is sitting in pubs or restaurants on an eve anyway.