MalcolmH

I do not consider myself to be a "selfish motorist", and this is why my wife and I tried to buy a parking ticket. I have said an awful lot on here and it is probably time for me to stop. All I will say is that if the riverside pubs and the boating companies do not wake up and stop their "ostrich in the sand" attitude they will kill the goose that lays the golden egg, and it will all be of their own making.

Hi CambridgeCabby, Regardless of the motives of the Swan, the bottom line is that they/Vintage Inns/Mitchell and Butler (who appear to own most of the village) employ an incompetent car parking company called Eurocarparks. This company incorrectly sent me a demand with menaces for £50 for not buying a parking ticket, when their ticket machine was not even working, We had however paid for parking by telephone and so the demand was therefore not justified. I too feel for sorry for those who were unable to get a ticket on that day because I did not see any sign that said the car park was for patrons only. It is interesting to note that Eurocarparks have not replied to me. Furthermore, the Swan/Vintage Inns websites invite comments/complaints from their customers and so I did . They have not replied either. I also wrote to Mitchell and Butler - no reply. This lack of response by all of them smacks of indifference and rudeness, and simply reinforces my view that these companies have only one motive - to rip off as many holidaymakers as possible. There are plenty of pubs in Norfolk that do not behave like this and I will use those in future.

I have had quite a few cruising holidays on the Broads, and when I first started the rivers were always very busy. However, over the years I have noticed a decline in the boating holiday activity and a rapid decline in the number of boatyards and companies. During my recent holiday in May it was very evident that the boatyards were full of boats with little activity on the rivers. The industry said that this was partly due to the rise in boating prices due to the price of diesel, and the ban on using red diesel, but I think another important reason is the attitude of the riverside public houses. The number of public houses charging for mooring has continually increased, and is based solely to greed coupled with poor service and shortsightedness - and several of these have since paid the penalty. For example, we used to stop at The Three Feathers (former Stracey Arms) at Acle, until the owner started to charge to moor. This was a stupid decision because there was about 100 yards of free moorings serving the adjacent shop and windmill! As you might expect, that pub is now closed and is now a religious building. Also closed is the Berney Arms at Breydon Water, and I do not the reason for this, but I expect that there are plenty more closures. Last year during another boating holiday we stopped at Reedham – one of the pubs could not care if they served us at all, the other was very good. Several years ago I wrote to the various tourist bodies in Norfolk complaining about the mooring policy on the broads, expressing my fears about what might happen, but the replies I received reflected an “ostrich with its head in the sand” attitude which is very sad. The economical truth is that people will go abroad rather than go on the Broads, because it is actually cheaper, and motorists will go to a pub where there are no parking costs. I fear for the Swan Inn and for Horning village.

Thank you for all of your comments above. Yes, I had already posted my views on Tripadvisor. No response from the Swan or Eurocarparks as of today, Sunday 2nd June , but that does not altogether surprise me.

During a recent holiday in Norfolk had the misfortune of visiting Horning. We parked on the car park adjacent to the Swan Inn at Horning on the 20th May and found, as many other people did on that day, that the parking ticket machine was not working. It was completely dead. My wife therefore paid the parking fee of £2.20 by using her telephone, and this payment was confirmed by a deduction on our bank statement. As the ticket machine was not working we were obviously not given a ticket. We then had a meal in the Swan Public House. It appeared to us that the car park is probably operated on behalf of the public house, by a company called Eurocarparks We therefore thought that would be the end of the matter, but after returning home we received on the 31st May a Penalty Charge Notice for £50, increasing to £85 if not paid by 6th June. This letter included photos of when we entered and left the car park. This company do not apply such a tight timescale to themselves, as they give themselves 35 days to deal with any appeal. Since we paid the fee and can prove that we did, we have rejected the penalty notice and we certainly do not intend to pay the claim. If Eurocarparks can afford to keep the parking camera working so well it is a pity that they do not come out of their London office once in a while and ensure the ticket machine is also working. We will not be visiting that public house or indeed Horning ever again. If you do not wish to be treated in such an appalling manner our advice is to keep clear of Horning and do not even drive into any car park operated by Eurocarparks. Our description of both companies and Horning is unprintable. The fact that the Swan Inn allows day boats only and not cruisers to moor at certain times of the day certainly says a lot about the attitude of this establishment towards their customers. Their website welcomes comments and complaints – they have not bothered to reply to ours. Two public houses near our home in Lancashire operated their car parks in the same way as above, and within a short period they had lost their customer base and have gone out of business.