Eryri's Overnight Parking U-Turn: What Happens When Good Intentions Create Worse Problems

There's a particular irony to a parking ban that ends up making things worse. You close a car park, tell people they can't stop overnight, and fully expect the problem to go away. Instead, the cars — and the behaviour that came with them — simply move somewhere else. That, in essence, is what appears to have happened in Eryri National Park, and it raises some genuinely important questions about how authorities manage visitor pressure in Britain's most treasured landscapes.

What Actually Happened

Eryri National Park Authority — the body responsible for managing what was formerly known as Snowdonia in North Wales — introduced restrictions on overnight parking at a number of locations across the park. The intention was straightforward: reduce the impact of wild camping, motorhome tourism, and the kind of late-night gatherings that had been leaving litter, human waste, and damage in sensitive natural areas.

But according to reporting from BBC News, the ban has now been paused. The reason? Local councillors and community campaigners argued that rather than eliminating the problem, the restrictions had simply displaced it. Anti-social behaviour, they said, had actually worsened in the communities surrounding the affected sites. People who could no longer park in the designated areas were pulling over on residential streets, narrow country lanes, and other informal spots — taking their noise, their waste, and their disregard for local residents with them.

The pause represents a significant climbdown for the Authority, and it reflects a tension that is playing out at beauty spots across the United Kingdom: how do you manage overwhelming visitor demand without simply shifting the burden onto communities that were never equipped to absorb it?

Why This Matters Beyond Snowdonia

Eryri is not alone in wrestling with this problem. Since the pandemic, national parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty across England, Scotland, and Wales have seen visitor numbers surge dramatically. The combination of staycation culture, the growth of van life and motorhome travel, and a broader enthusiasm for the outdoors has put enormous pressure on infrastructure that was simply not designed for it.

The Peak District, the Lake District, Dartmoor, and the Brecon Beacons have all faced similar flashpoints — overcrowded car parks, informal roadside camping, and communities feeling overwhelmed by visitors who arrive in large numbers but leave little economic benefit and considerable mess behind.

What makes the Eryri situation particularly instructive is that it demonstrates the displacement effect so clearly. Parking bans, road closures, and access restrictions do not reduce demand — they redirect it. Unless there is somewhere appropriate for visitors to go, the problem does not disappear; it migrates. This is not a new concept in transport planning, but it is one that local authorities repeatedly underestimate.

The communities around Eryri — many of them Welsh-speaking villages with fragile social and economic structures — were never consulted as potential overflow zones. When the ban pushed visitors onto their streets, they had no warning and no recourse.

The Legal Landscape: What Powers Do National Park Authorities Actually Have?

This is where things get genuinely complicated. National Park Authorities in Wales operate under the Environment (Wales) Act 2016 and the broader framework of the Environment Act 1995, which established the current structure of national park governance across Great Britain. Their statutory purposes include conserving and enhancing natural beauty, wildlife, and cultural heritage, as well as promoting opportunities for public understanding and enjoyment.

Crucially, they do not have the same powers as a local highway authority. Car parks and designated stopping areas within national parks can be managed by the Authority itself, but roads within park boundaries typically remain the responsibility of the relevant county or unitary authority — in Eryri's case, primarily Gwynedd Council.

This means that overnight parking restrictions on public roads require Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs), which are made under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984. TROs must go through a formal consultation and advertisement process before they come into force, and they can be challenged if the correct procedure has not been followed. Any restriction on a public road that has not been properly made through a TRO process is not legally enforceable.

For private car parks within the national park, the Authority has considerably more flexibility — it can set its own terms and conditions, including hours of use, and enforce them either directly or through a contractor. But the moment visitors step off private land onto the public highway, the legal picture changes entirely.

Motorhome and campervan owners should be aware that there is no general law in England or Wales against sleeping in your vehicle on a public road, provided you are parked legally. Wild camping, by contrast, has no general right of access in England and Wales (unlike Scotland, where the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 provides a statutory right to responsible access). Sleeping in a vehicle on a public road is a different matter entirely — it is not, in itself, an offence, though it can attract attention from police if associated with other issues.

What Drivers Should Know: Practical Advice for Visiting Eryri and Similar Areas

If you are planning a trip to Eryri — or any other national park — in the coming months, here is what you need to bear in mind:

Before you travel:

• Check the Eryri National Park Authority website for the latest information on parking restrictions, as the situation is actively evolving following this pause
• Book designated campsites or motorhome stopovers in advance; demand consistently outstrips supply at peak times
• Research whether your intended parking location is on park-managed land, a council-operated car park, or a public road, as the rules and enforcement mechanisms differ significantly

If you are parking overnight:

• Parking on a public road overnight is generally legal in Wales, but check for any TRO restrictions, which will be indicated by signs
• Be aware that even where overnight parking is technically permitted, anti-social behaviour — excessive noise, lighting, waste disposal — can attract police attention under the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014
• Local authorities can also use Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) under the same Act to restrict certain activities in defined areas; check whether any PSPOs are in force at your destination

If you receive a parking ticket:

• Tickets issued on public roads in Wales are Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) issued under civil enforcement powers
• You have the right to make an informal challenge within 14 days of the notice date (or 21 days if the notice was sent by post), and a formal representation if the informal challenge is rejected
• If your formal representation is refused, you can appeal to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, which covers Wales and is entirely independent of the issuing authority

Looking Ahead: Can the Problem Actually Be Solved?

The pause in Eryri's overnight parking ban is not a defeat — it is, or should be, a moment for more sophisticated thinking. Simply banning parking without providing alternatives has demonstrably failed. The question now is what comes next.

There are broadly three approaches that have shown promise elsewhere. Managed overflow sites — temporary or permanent areas where visitors can park and camp responsibly, with basic facilities — reduce displacement pressure significantly. Shuttle bus schemes connecting peripheral car parks to popular destinations have worked well in parts of the Lake District and Dartmoor. And demand management pricing, where parking charges rise steeply at peak times to discourage casual visits while funding infrastructure improvements, has been piloted with some success in coastal areas.

None of these solutions is cheap, and all of them require genuine coordination between the National Park Authority, Gwynedd Council, Welsh Government, and local communities. That coordination has historically been difficult to achieve.

What is clear is that the era of simply closing a gate and hoping the problem goes away is over. Visitor pressure on Britain's national parks is a structural challenge, not a seasonal nuisance, and it demands structural responses. The communities of Eryri — and the landscape they call home — deserve better than a policy that merely exports their difficulties to the next village down the road.

Source: BBC News, "Ban on overnight parking in national park paused after 'anti-social behaviour got worse'"