[Tagging] Fixed caravan site

Jason Cunningham jamicuosm at googlemail.com
Sun Nov 18 23:21:48 GMT 2012


On 18 November 2012 17:24, ael <law_ence.dev at ntlworld.com> wrote:

> Thanks for all the replies. In the UK context, none of these seem
> entirely satisfactory. landuse=residential is certainly true, but these
> caravan parks are rather distinctive, not common, and IMHO need a
> distinctive tag. The hamlet tag would only be appropriate in the few
> cases when they are away from towns.
>
> ael
>

I agree that the tagging is lacking in this area. During the summer I was
had a look at a several tagged camp & caravan sites in south west England
using aerial imagery. The tags used does not describe what's on the ground.
I did this after being dissatisfied that major "holiday camps" in the UK
consisting of a mix of tents, caravans, and chalets didn't appear to have
an appropriate tag despite being major features often covering huge areas.
Didn't know what the solution was and didnt follow it up.

In the UK the caravans and mobile homes are legally the same thing. The
term 'mobile home' is used for the legal definition of both, and the
definition is very generous. The following
[link<http://www.selfbuildtimberframe.com/mobile-homes>]
shows the caravans/mobile homes I'd assume most people would consider to be
a normal small house or bungalow. Many owners of sites meant for temporary
use of normal caravans have realised there is more money to be made from
having permanent residents in these mobile homes. Normally the historic
permission for caravan use limits people staying in them for only 9/10
months of the year. Despite this large numbers of people are willing to buy
them as homes, and go off on holiday for the 3 months when they must vacate
the premises (the caravans/mobile homes dont move while they're gone).
Despite being clearly used as permanent residences they're described as
Caravan Parks. Some sites do have permission for the caravans/mobile homes
to be used throughput the year and in these cases the sites have become
know as 'Residential Parks' (the UK equivalent of the US trailer park?)

I think the American expression "If it looks like a duck, swims like a
duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck." is relevant
here.
They are residential areas, rather than leisure areas, and I think
therefore they should use the residential tag.
Where a building(s) can be moved, but there is no intent to move them, and
they have a permanent resident, I'd use 'duck test' and suggest
residential=chalet_park, or something similar.
l think tourism=caravan_site should be for sites primarily used for
caravans that can stay for short periods.

Jason
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