Picture the scene. Late November 2024. You’ve pulled into Royal Albert Drive just before dark. Sea on one side, cliffs on the other. Parked properly. No chairs out. No awning. Kettle on. You’re planning to sleep, wake up early, and be gone before most dog walkers have laced their boots.
Then the signs go up.
North Yorkshire Council, citing an “unprecedented level of complaints,” introduces an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order — an ETRO — banning motorhomes and campervans from parking between 11pm and 7am at three coastal locations: Royal Albert Drive in Scarborough, the A174 between Sandsend and Raithwaite, and Osgodby Hill and Filey Road at Cayton Bay.
On paper it looks decisive. Complaints about rubbish, fires, illegal parking, vans packed too close together for the fire service’s comfort. The sort of thing that forces a council’s hand.
So they act. And the vans don’t disappear. They move.
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