Is it OK ... to use a caravan?

Leo Hickman's guide to a good life

Before she recently took up the post of secretary of state for air miles, Margaret Beckett, as environment secretary, had the happy coincidence of also being the country's most famous caravanner. She, along with the owners of the UK's almost one million "leisure vehicles" (caravans, motor- homes and caravan holiday homes), are members of a growing breed that has always celebrated its closeness to nature. Shunning the cramped flights and concrete box rooms of the package holidays in the sun, caravanners prefer to spend their nights parked up under the stars with the freedom, and lightness of foot, to move on in the morning to wherever they choose.

Interesting, then, that they have long been the target of so much ire. A good proportion of this - let's admit it - hatred comes from the "get off my road" variety of driver who will risk head-on collision if it means not having to spend another mile looking at the back end of a caravan. Any motorists heading to the south-west in the summer, for example, will probably have experienced these emotions. But when a "climbing lane" for trucks and caravans was trialled on the Naish Hill stretch of the M5 in 2004 it was judged by the Highways Agency not to have conclusively eased the congestion (even though, to the chagrin of the Caravan Club, it still pushed on with the scheme that concluded with the opening of a permanent climbing lane last week). Is this criticism fair, then?

Another source of fuel for the critics is the "blot on the landscape" argument. Last month the laird of the Inner Hebridean island of Colonsay announced that the 100 islanders had agreed to ban caravans and motorhomes from travelling by ferry to the island. "The locals thought they spoiled the appearance of the island and their owners did not contribute to a very fragile economy, where the season is short and every penny across the counter helps," says Alex Howard, head of Colonsay estate.

The Caravan Club calls the decision "tourism fascism", and argues that caravanners contribute £1bn to the British economy each year.

But it does seem fair to ask just how much a host community benefits when caravanners bring their own food, bed and transport. This leads to the most pressing issue - the direct environmental impact of caravans and motor-homes. It doesn't really seem that sensible to bring a sink, loo, shower, sofa, mattress, crockery et al with you when you go on holiday, especially when, combined with the weight of the towing vehicle, it can all add up to several tonnes. The Caravan Club, for example, is "disappointed" that the weight limit for the B-category licence under the proposed Third European Driving Licence Directive will not be 4.25 tonnes as opposed to 3.5 tonnes for motor caravans. As with cars, the trend for caravans and motorhomes is for ever bigger models. The extra weight and drag from towing a caravan also increases fuel use considerably. And the fuel consumption of a large motorhome can be as poor as 5-10 miles per gallon.

But the counter-cry from caravanners is that they tend to holiday within the UK and, therefore, don't need polluting flights abroad. With dozens of models to choose from it's hard to make an accurate comparison, but with a modest campervan - say, the VW Caravelle - the comparisons between carbon dioxide emissions do seem favourable, even with flights to Europe. For example, a 1,000km trip (London to Cornwall and back with some small diversions) in a Caravelle (174PS, 2.5-litre diesel) will emit, on average, 224kg of carbon dioxide, according to the Vehicle Certification Agency, whereas a 2,000km short-haul flight (broadly equivalent to Heathrow to Marseille return) will produce about 300kg per passenger. But most leisure vehicles will be carrying at least two people - plus people might fly much further than the south of France for their holidays.

With bigger leisure vehicles the comparisons clearly become far less favourable. A larger Mercedes Sprinter motorhome, according to the Energy Savings Trust, would emit 350kg of CO2 over the same journey as the Caravelle. But, as ever, the train beats both - a 1,000km trip would emit 40kg of CO2 per passenger.

If you do use a leisure vehicle, reducing weight wherever possible is important. Transporting water - either fresh water or as sewage - in onboard tanks doesn't make any sense, unless you are within a particularly sensitive area and are instructed to do so. How the sewage and any other waste is dealt with at any caravan park or campsite is a key question to ask. Consult the Caravan Club ( or Camping and Caravanning Club ( for more information about each prospective site, as well as for driving tips (every half-bar under-inflation in tyre pressure increases fuel consumption by 5%). The Windermere Camping and Caravanning Club Site in the Lake District, for example, has won a number of awards and been hailed as the most environmentally friendly campsite in the UK.

Finally, never be tempted to pull over and stop for the night away from the crowds on a lonely layby. In New Zealand, the land of the campervan, the problem is called "freedom camping" and is blamed for roadside waste as well as providing little benefit to the local community. Motor Caravan magazine is running a campaign called Stopovers UK to lobby for more official roadside sites, similar to the many aires across France, in part to curb this illegal urge.

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