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MOTORHOMENEWS

~ A personal take by Christopher Macgowan on tourism, travel and motorhomes.

MOTORHOMENEWS

Monthly Archives: February 2016

Thanks to the North Essex Centre.

28 Sunday Feb 2016

Posted by chrismacgowan in General, This and That

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#motorhomes, Betfred, Chelmsford City Racecourse, Christopher Macgowan, Essex Showground, motorhomenews, North Essex Centre, Rob Rice, The Caravan Club

   
 

Many thanks to the North Essex Centre of The Caravan Club for their generous hospitality during their rally held this weekend at the Chelmsford City Racecourse. Particular thanks to Chairman Rob Rice.

It is a high quality venue in all respects and recently came under the new ownership of Betfred who look to be making a great success of it. An all weather track, when it first opened in 2008 it was the first entirely new racecourse in the UK since Taunton opened in 1927. It had a stuttering start to life going into administration quite early on but is now firmly back in business under the Betfred ownership. 

Local people, of which I am one, will inevitably always refer to it as the Essex Showground despite the fact that there has not been an Essex County Show for a very long time.

Christopher Macgowan

@motorhomenews

The NEC Show – where to stay!

25 Thursday Feb 2016

Posted by chrismacgowan in Exhibitions and Shows, General

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Christopher Macgowan, motorhomenews, NEC, The Caravan Club

  
The place to be is The Caravan Club’s temporary site within the grounds of the NEC and on the shuttle bus route. Simples!

Christopher Macgowan

@motorhomenews

No fuel duty increases – Freight Transport Association 

09 Tuesday Feb 2016

Posted by chrismacgowan in General, Politics

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Christopher Macgowan, freight, FTA, fuel duty, motorhome, motorhomenews, transport

  
It would be economically irresponsible, if the Chancellor were to increase fuel duty in the March Budget, says the Freight Transport Association (FTA) in response to a leading think tank report published yesterday.

According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) annual ‘green budget’, George Osborne, may be forced to raise prices at the petrol pumps to meet his election pledge to eliminate the deficit of £3 billion in the country’s finances.

FTA has said that such a move would hinder the still fragile recovery and further weaken confidence, adding that it is now time for further reductions in fuel duty to keep the economy growing.

James Hookham, FTA’s Deputy Chief Executive, said: “Regardless of the price of oil, for every penny fuel duty goes up it costs truck and van operators around a £100 million in a full year. It won’t make them drive any less – goods still need to move to where they are needed – and it won’t help them invest in making their vehicles and drivers even more efficient. It will just cost them a lot of money.”

The freezing of fuel duty rates at 2011 levels has meant that FTA members reliant on commercial trucks and vans have been spared the economically stifling effects of a tax on a commodity they have no option but to buy. Instead, they have been left with cash in their trading accounts to spend on hiring more staff or purchasing other goods, all of which have served to drive the UK economy out of recession at one of the fastest growth rates in the developed world.

Mr Hookham added: “All this additional spending has actually generated more income tax and VAT, so fuel duty freezes are never as costly as the headline figures suggest. The Treasury even published a paper in 2014 that proved this.”

The FTA message to the Chancellor is that whilst most of his announcements on Budget day will be buried in the small print of countless Treasury documents, the impact of his decisions on fuel duty will be displayed in numbers several feet high at the front of every filling station in the country.

The Freight Transport Association can trace its origins back to 1889 and is recognised as the voice of the freight and logistics industry, representing the transport interests of companies moving goods by road, rail, sea and air. FTA members operate over 220,000 goods vehicles – half the UK fleet – consign over 90 per cent of the freight moved by rail and 70 per cent of sea and air freight.

Christopher Macgowan

@motorhomenews

Tredegar House Country Park.

04 Thursday Feb 2016

Posted by chrismacgowan in Sites

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Christopher Macgowan, motorhome, motorhomenews, National Trust, Six Nations, The Caravan Club, Tredegar House

   
    
 
Tredegar House Country Park is within a mile of the M4 and only seven miles from Cardiff. The house itself is recognised as one of the most significant 17th century houses in the whole of the British Isles. The house is open between Easter and September and the park itself open all year as is The Caravan Club site. The site is about to be extremely busy with the Six Nations Cup.

The house and parkland is operated by the National Trust and is another example of the successful relationship between the Trust and the Club. The site is seven acres with eighty pitches and I stayed for a couple of nights and thoroughly enjoyed it. Immaculate – not easy in February with the recent weather – with an Asda round the corner should you have suffered as I did from a memory lapse. 

Christopher Macgowan

@motorhomenews

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