Horning Village Car Park ( By The Swan )

[JennyMorgan]

2 minutes ago, grendel said:

simple park your boat in the car park. take a good long run down the straight, ignore the corner and you might just make it.

There is a certain pub at Burgh St Peter, which shall remain nameless,  where a local did just that! Well, not quite but he parked his boat on a trailer in the car-park just to make a point. Must have been ignored though as moorings are still charged for. However, boat mooring is less expensive than for parking your tent or caravan for the night!

[TheQ]

The Swan owns, the Car park, the sailing club car park, the Swan green, the Sailing club island, the grass in front of the Swan, and the land under the parish road which goes round the Swan.

12 ft depth from the bank, from the end of the gravel path on Swan green, round to the SC car Park and the Island are leased to the Sailing club. Which costs a fair amount of money. (that's a battle when that gets revalued every 5 years IIRC).

 The Sailing club has some security of tenure due to one of the clubs founders being an owner of Norwich breweries, which at one time owned the Swan, setting  the terms of the original lease, . They do however have to pay a market rent for the lease...

The Tarmac'd Swan Car Park is leased to  a parking company, which I believe makes the Swan around £50,000 a year..

 

PS, I'm not on the committee or held a "official" role, this is just information I've picked up over the last 40+ years at HSC..

[vanessan]

18 hours ago, Paul said:

Shhhhhhh, dont tell everyone but the Parish Council do provide a free car park in Horning at the parish hall. You can walk down Mill Loke and come out by t he staithe or cross the playing field to the footpath that comes out by the New Inn.

Just don't tell everyone ....

Have you used that footpath from the playing field recently Paul? We tried to find it last October but there seemed to be work going on in that area and it wasn’t very evident. We ended up retracing our steps back across the playing field and down Mill Loke, the dogs didn’t complain anyway as they got a longer walk! 

[Ray]

Horning is a lovely village, I accept parking charges as just one of those things these days.

I have never moored at Horning for a quick pint in one of the nice pubs as I've never seen a space free!!! I know you can book but fancying a quick pint when you see a nice pub isn't quite the same thing as booking in advance. 

I should cruise down there out of season I guess 

[Regulo]

1 hour ago, Ray said:

I should cruise down there out of season I guess 

Last Tuesday lunchtime you could have had the choice of any mooring you wanted at Horning!

[unclemike]

1 minute ago, Regulo said:

Last Tuesday lunchtime you could have had the choice of any mooring you wanted at Horning!

regulo was there and frightened the others away

[Regulo]

That could have been it, I suppose!

[Paul]

4 hours ago, vanessan said:

Have you used that footpath from the playing field recently Paul? We tried to find it last October but there seemed to be work going on in that area and it wasn’t very evident. We ended up retracing our steps back across the playing field and down Mill Loke, the dogs didn’t complain anyway as they got a longer walk! 

They may have been working on the path itself as i understand they have resurfaced it and made it "accessible". You certainly can't miss it now unless you are looking too far down the field. The path cuts in from the end of Pinewood Drive by the bowling green and leaves the playing field behind the play park, bringing you out opposite what was that little row of shops next to the New Inn, of which I think only the Golden City remains, the other two having been converted to residential. It shows up well on google maps aerial photo.

[MalcolmH]

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.

 

[Vaughan]

I can only agree with every word of the above.

I have fond memories of evenings in the Swan and am deeply saddened that it has come to this.

[NorfolkNog]

7 hours ago, MalcolmH said:

Their website welcomes comments and complaints – they have not bothered to reply to ours.

I have every sympathy. Terrible. Why not try posting your comments on Trip Advisor - pubs are a bit more sensitive to this

You may well find similar comments! 

[Polly]

The whole photo/car park thing is highly questionable and basically the big companies that run them are pretty fierce.

[grendel]

I had an incident with eurocarparks at a hotel - we had training, i went to reception and asked to book my car in, oh no they replied you need to use the special tablet which will be in the training room. got there asked for the tablet, ah no sir, I will get the form you need to fill in. forms obtained and appropriately distributed to the two rooms we were in that day. my name at the top. several weeks later a similar letter with photos, 20 of my colleagues also received them - so the forms had been handed in, but the hotel forgot to notify the car parking people. stiffly worded letter sent to hotel, saved as a standard letter the others could send out, parking notices rescinded.

as you have proof of payment, and the machine was broken, I would contact them, tell them to rescind the notice and threaten to take them to court if they dont, any judge would throw their case out in an instant for wasting his time.

[BroadAmbition]

MalcolmH - My advice is to write to them just once stating the obvious, agree to a court date then take no further action no matter what they do with their pressure / dirty tricks

I had an issue with a private car park over in Sheffield a couple of years ago now, I was getting lawyers letters and the like threatening to take me to court for non payment of 'Their Fine'  Which on principle I was never going to pay..  The Lawyers turned out not to exist - it was a made up name / firm.  They were just trying to frighten me into collecting money - Really? waste of time there then.  The whole saga dragged on for about two years before they quietly went away with their tails between their legs. It never affected my credit rating or gave me any black marks with regards to finances that I could see. 

How you have been treated does not surprise me in the least where these type of car park vultures are concerned.  I take it you have written to the hotel? what about dropping an email to the Horning parish council?  I would bet the Horning local councillors /and business owners would be somewhat concerned to learn visitors are not returning / being put off.

Oh and BTW - The power of Media is a real force.  (And I'm on your side)

Griff

[marshman]

Malcolm - I accept most of your comments but it is a little harsh to judge the whole village by the actions of an owner of a pub! To be fair to the village there is plenty of free on road parking within 50m and a free car park provided by the village within 200m!

Part of the problem revolves around the fact that "free" facilities are often abused by the world at large - Horning PC provide waste bins for boaters adjacent to the carpark but regularly they are filled by "locals" with everything from garden waste upwards!! 

 

 

[BroadAmbition]

Horning PC provide waste bins for boaters adjacent to the carpark but regularly they are filled by "locals" with everything from garden waste upwards!! 

You're not wrong there.  The amount of 'Stuff' you see in those bins from households has to be seen to be believed

Griff

 

[Springsong]

When we were tenants at the Ship a car was left on our car park abandoned. I rang the Police who contacted the owner. He told them it had broken down and that he would come at the w/e to move it. At the end of that we still  so we not moved no road tax may be no insurance who knows,anyway we pushed it onto the street and parked it by the bus shelter on the bus stop. Miraculously a low loader turned up a few hours later and it was gone. Lesson to be learnt speak to people all he had to do was ring me , or when he initially broke down speak tome. I of course had nothing to do with moving it as I told the Police when asked. 

[dnks34]

We had a similar incident last year in German carpark we had visited on previous visits.  We hadnt noticed the new signs that said you had to put your time clock card on display and the parking Gestapo took great pleasure in ticketing our vehicles moments after we had gone in to the shop.

We sent the tickets back to them with no return address and a receipts to prove we had used the shop and funnily enough they haven't tracked us down!

I understand that facilities can be abused but these parking charges to my mind are seen more as a cash harvesting opportunity than to prevent abuse.

I also think the fact that the DVLA hand over your personal details to these bullies to be a total disgrace.  

 

[Timbo]

Griff may appreciate this...maybe not.

I got a parking ticket which was issued in error by one of the security guys at the centre where my other half works. After chasing the muppet down to ask why he had stuck the ticket on my car he told us he was sorry he thought it looked like my car with my number plate but it was parked in the bay next to where I usually parked and even though he had just that second spoken to me it was 'all too late and I've got to appeal the fine'. A demand for £150 arrived through the post a month later. I neatly rolled the demand with menaces into a cylinder shape and popped it into a box along with a jar of vaseline to ease things along, wrote detailed instructions with diagrams which I popped in the box too and then mailed the lot to the car parking company.

It's all gone quiet on the car parking front! 

[Siddy]

Standard letter on our local FB for a using a store carpark in our local town center which seems to get them off, even driving in to collect someone with goods gets you a ticket.

A few hundred yards as you leave the center of Leeds theirs a carpark with a Aldi at one side and a £ shop the other with a path in between the carparks which looks like one large car park. But read the info on the wall you can park in each for a hour as long as you don't leave the car park on foot crossing any paths. Both parks are run by different parking companys and camares all over.

So go to one or the other or move the car for both.

 

[MalcolmH]

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.

 

[misswhiplash76]

i was actually done for being 1 minute over time in an aldi.the  reason i was taken ill.collapsed low blood sugar cost me 70 quid

 

[MalcolmH]

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.

 

 

 

[Gretzky]

I used to feel a little guilty using the bins in Horning as we have mooring in Horning and the sign say for the use of visting boats only. That is until recently when I saw a resident dumping his home waste even a table that was obviously way too big to have ever even been used on a boat! As far as the Swan goes, it s great pub out of season, during the season we always steer clear as they always seem to maintain the same staffing levels (or close to) even in high season. I guess extra staff are a drain on the profit margin, so the customers let face if most holiday makers may only use a said pub once probably not return even if the service was top notch, and just cross it off the re-visit list but by then the pub has their money or am I being cinical?

As to the free parking Horning PC has recently maked off about a third of the what was availble free paring on the staith as disabled parking, they really do seem to have a problem with visitors for some unknown reason, remeber "planter gate" a couple of years ago when Horning PC thought for some reason it would be a good idea to put planters all along the access road via the staith to prevent parking too.

It seems strange to me for a village that relies on the tourist trade to try as hard as possible to stop people visting the village.

[CambridgeCabby]

Sadly it is a sign of the times , if it wasn’t for the abuse of the pubs facilities in the past then there would have been no need for these Draconian measures , when I had a Cambridge centre pub we had to install posts to prevent shoppers and even holiday makers parking in the car park for in one case up to a fortnight .

if you are a patron in The Swan you inform them give them your registration number and you should encounter no problems , there is appropriate signage in place telling this.

so whilst I have some sympathy for those who have been caught by the anpr cameras at Horning , I also sympathise with the pub who have had non-patrons using their car park in the past .