"You also seem to forget about about the teeny tiny areas known as Dartmoor; Exmoor; and Bodmin Moor which make up a significant proportion of the SW and which are not exactly warm and hospitable areas, even in Summer, so that actually reduces capacity in the SW further. But those geographic areas also mean that access to the region can be controlled and blocked off 'very' easily."
But they are still covered in holiday, pony trekking centres, outward bound centres farms, old military bases which WILL attract people and the climate of those areas is still far milder in general because of their closeness to the sea and gulf stream compared with the Peak, Lakes, Moors and Dales national parks.
But that still does not remove the west Countries PROXIMITY to many large urban areas.
I 100% absolutely disagree with you about it being easy to block off and manage, unless you are going to put a line of people from Bristol right cross country, 24/7 to South Hampton there is no way you can even come close to securing the area. You probably could stop cars and trucks but theres no way on earth you can stop huge numbers of people walking in.
However I absolute 100% still encourage anyone planning on relocating to be more off grid, secure, prepped etc to go to the South West, there is nothing of interest or use in the north east or north west.
Doing a quick Google there are at least 32,000 boat licences in the UK, not including fishing boats, commercial vessels, jet skis, hover craft etc.
According to Yachting and boating world there are 88,000 commercial vessels not including leisure craft ( FYI LS there are 60,000 licenced radio users).
According to the LAA there are over 8,000 pilot, amateur builder, vintage aircraft owner and enthusiast members, providing sector-leading consultation and lobbying on UK and European aviation regulatory matters. With over 2,500 operational aircraft, including microlights and autogyros, and another 1,700 aircraft under construction, our technical competence is second to none, worldwide.
According to Motorcycle there are
◦There are about 1 million UK licenced (taxed) motorcycles on the road each year. This implies 1.3 million active riders (given DVLA's assumption of 15-25% road fund licence evasion). But some of us have more than one bike taxed, which makes it a bit less.
◦So its somewhere around 1.1 - 1.2 million active riders in the UK.
(There are 5 million full motorcycle licence holders, so 4/5ths are inactive.)
(There are 525,000 female full motorcycle licence holders.)
◦Each year, there are about 139,000 new motorcycle registrations. So more than 1 in 10 of us bought a new bike.
According to Bike Radar.com
There are more cycles sold in the UK than cars. according to the DfT, in 2009 there were 3.5m bikes sold in the UK compared to 2.9m vehicles. With 1.9m of vehicle sales being cars. (source BBC news)
I cannot find accurate figures for competent 4x4 vehicles in the UK but the searches say sales of proper off road capable vehicles are at an all time high.
I cannot find accurate figures for Quad or Mule type vehicles but again sales in the UK are thriving.
I cannot find accurate visitor numbers for sw that are less than 10 years old.
According to Wiki there are 123,000 ramblers in the UK
The crow flying from Bristol to Southampton is nigh on 76 miles of mainly open rural undulating lush countryside passing through places like Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire with Wiltshire being popular with the military for hiding huge numbers of troops in on exercise.
Good luck with keeping everyone out.
Hmmm wifey just pointed an interesting doofah, what if TSHTF during the tourist season and / or whilst Glastonbury was on ? that could leave the summer season double the normal number of people in the area being STUCK there?
Still the WC is pretty and gorgeous and there's massive numbers of preppers and bushcrafters and hippies and offgridders living there they cannot ALL be wrong can they?.
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Devon and Cornwall will be inundated with refugees? Ifs, maybes, and conjecture
