Do you think Cornwall will be 'open' in July?

[NoSoapAndGory]

Hi all.

A purely speculative post to gauge opinions, as I know we don't know, don't have a crystal ball, etc etc.

We have booked a self catering holiday cottage near Bude for the first 10 days of July. We live in the South East, so it's about 5 hours drive to get there on a good day. We have a dog so would need to stop at a service station at least once.

As part of general future-focused conversation, DH and I are ruminating about

1: will we be 'allowed' to go
2: if we are, would we want to anyway?
3: if it's 'allowed', will the Bude community welcome us or hate us?
4: will the tourist industry want revenue or not?

Etc. Etc. Etc.

Anyone else having similar discussions, and if so, what are you thinking?

So what’s the solution?

We are due to go to Devon in mid-August and hope it will be open by then. We normally eat all our meals in the cottage anyway and could take our food with us rather than having a Tesco delivery. Currently the accommodation is closed (it's a group of cottages), so if it doesn't open, then we won't go.

The people of Cornwall have long made their views about tourists known (calling them emmets for example which isn't a fond nickname) and this crisis has brought it all out into the open.

I've not been to Cornwall since I was about 19 and think there are prettier, friendlier and less crowded places to go on holiday.

As for those of you on this thread who live in Devon and Cornwall, can you tolerate those of us with family in the region visiting our families? I don't actually think visiting family is the same as going for a holiday (or indeed staying in a second home).

I don’t think you’ll get a good cross section. I lived in Cornwall as a child, in a remote village. The attitude to outsiders was mixed. The attitude to outsiders in tourist spots like St Ives is more positive on the whole.

I don't think it will be open in July. Maybe September.

So what’s the solution?

In the short term (this summer) financial support for industries that can't operate within necessary social distancing measures.

Some businesses - hotels, venues, restaurants - may be able to cover some of their overhead costs by renting out space to other businesses and organisations - schools? - to enable social distancing.

Any solution requires testing, isolation and tracking. All businesses will need to think through the consequences of the steps that will need to be taken, as explained by ihaventgottimeforthis.

As for those of you on this thread who live in Devon and Cornwall, can you tolerate those of us with family in the region visiting our families? I don't actually think visiting family is the same as going for a holiday (or indeed staying in a second home).

If everyone in Cornwall is so awful, why visit family, who are presumably awful too?

Or perhaps most people in Cornwall are actually friendly and are just worried about a lack of hospitals?

I think the 'Cornish hate tourists/outsiders' thing is over exaggerated. I've lived here 20 years on and off, never seen anything more than a moan at visitors who can't drive in the lanes or moan themselves at our lack of facilities.
What I think will happen is many businesses will try to open up again when permitted with social distancing measures in place but they won't be sustainable or practical or profitable over the season, so things will start to slide back to normal behaviour, (probably starting with places like Trago). Places that close outside of season will close and perhaps not open up next year.
Cases will start to rise in autumn, businesses & parks will shut again over winter & wait to see where we are in spring next year. Only the most profitable businesses will be able to open up again next year, which unfortunately isn't necessarily the nicest places.
This will take us years to recover from.

I can't blame people for wanting to visit. I'm lucky to be within 5 minutes walk of a beach, it's the main thing keeping me relatively happy.
But the pressure that a large number of people will put on our shops & key workers is concerning, especially when there is little to do when you're here.
Having tourists come down will mean that life returns to its normal pattern very quickly as people will try to take advantage of a chance to keep their business afloat & earn some money. So we will see more cases.
Perhaps its unavoidable and we just need to bite the bullet and do it. I don't know.
I don't want anyone booking into my parent's holiday let though, that's for sure.

We have a cottage booked in Devon for the first week of September (booked last year).

We'd love to still go, but absolutely won't be doing if the locals don't want tourists to come (though I'd hope the cottage owner will allow us to defer the booking). We tend to travel all over Devon and Cornwall when we go down there and would rather wait until next year when it's more doable.

Royal Cornwall Hospital known as Treliske to locals only has 15 permanent ICU beds

www.royalcornwall.nhs.uk/ward/critical-care-unit/

The CEO said this at the beginning of April but this is base on provisions for those who live in the county not for visitor numbers:

"Normal capacity in Cornwall is for 15 intensive care beds, we’re going to go up to 68 intensive care beds in our first phase and if we need to we’ll be able to go up to 146 intensive care beds spread out across the top of the hospital.

We’re planning for a total surge capacity at any one time of needing to treat around 400 people on oxygen therapy and around 60 people on non-invasive ventilation.

Now obviously some of the oxygen therapy will take place in the community hospitals so we’ve got 250 beds in the community hospitals that could be used. So, when you add all of that together we’ve got sufficient capacity."

– KATE SHIELDS, CEO AT THE ROYAL CORNWALL HOSPITALS TRUST

I am amazed people are so comfortable about the idea of moving into a holiday cottage with no idea who was staying there before and how well the place was cleaned afterwards, given that the virus can survive 3 days outside a host on surfaces like metal and longer on some other surfaces. Not worth the risk in my view.

The debate about whether visitors to Cornwall are welcomed or not is a bit of a distraction.

The key issue here is about reducing the potential for a massive cluster and overwhelming the hospitals which results in deaths.

For the people upthread who are claiming it’s some conspiracy theory because the locals don’t like them; give your heads a wobble.

Amazing when thousands have died that someone would feel justified in pointing and saying “it’s just because they don’t like me! And I’m going ANYWAY”. Illustrates sooo much.

@Elizabella that’s really helpful; thank you for finding some actual numbers.

That sounds like about right for the resident pop of 500k.

Although actually it could quite quickly become completely overwhelmed even by the resident population if we’d reached the % of cases seen in other areas.

Having worked in a community hospital, I do wonder if they’d hit the problems with oxygen that the hospitals in London had. :(

The majority of Cornish folks are just fine, the anti-visitor ones tend to be the Cornish nationalists who have an agenda but they are very much in the minority. Cornwall will welcome everyone back once this awful outbreak is over. Until then, we all have to make sacrifices and think of others as well as ourselves. My mum lives just outside Hayle, is elderly and has severe health issues. I live in London and am her only family and even I can't travel down to be with her. I haven't seen her since Christmas. I am worried sick even though the village has been wonderful dropping off food and bits and pieces and friends phone every day etc. I would love to travel down to be with my mum but I am very conscious of the fact that asymptomatic people are the main transmitters of this virus and coming from the place that is most severely infected, I don't want to carry it with me like some latter day Typhoid Mary!

@WutheringHeights absolutely!

*Puffinandkoala
*
It's a delicate balance. On the whole I love living where I live. But 6 weeks of the year it's busy it's chaotic it takes you 1.5 hours to get to the hospital not 45 minutes. The supermarkets can't cope because they weren't designed for an influx of visitors - so social distancing will be even harder. People
Drive far to fast on country lanes in their Chelsea tractors like they own the place. Cornwall is a gorgeous place to live. But when every one decamps down here the atmosphere changes. I spend a big chunk of time out of the county to escape.

However, we all realise how crucial tourism
Is to our local economy. And we don't bite the hand which gives us food. We just grump a little when the tourists pinch our favourite seat in our local beer garden or the best spot on the beach.

I think the holiday agencies have a lot to do with the 'I'm going anyway' issue as they are refusing to refund even if the holiday is cancelled. It's all very well being told to rebook, but when to for a start?

Also people are having to pay a lot extra to rebook for next year, I've seen on woman has to pay another £700 for the equivalent week and people don't necessarily have that extra money.

Other people are finding the cottage they have booked isn't available next year as the owner is no longer advertising with that particular agency and are being told they can't change to another one so have to go this year.

I'm not saying any of this makes it right for people to go on holiday, just that it's not as straightforward as 'we won't go'.

Thanks Elizabella, I couldn't find any figures so that is reassuring to see how much capacity they have been able to build in.
The other issue though is geographical constraints - if Treliske does reach capacity, our location means that it is a long road journey up the peninsula to reach the next available hospital, which is also likely to be nearing capacity and sending people up-country. So it is very difficult to move people around to find space.

I live in Cornwall and my income is from renting out holiday cottages.

The only reason local.people don't want tourists is because of the hospital situation here. When lockdown is over tourists will be welcomed back with open arms.

Personally, I am hoping that we will be able to open our holiday accommodation by September. Anything before that will be a bonus.

Holiday cottages will be open for business when the government says so. When this happens it will be considered safe I assume. So anyone not wanting tourists to come at that stage should shut up and accept it.

In terms of cleaning, I will be using disinfectant where before I just used a normal cleaning product. I will leave a disinfectant spray in the cottage too.

I think it would be best for people to bring their own supplies of food at the start.

I think lots of people will just want to get away from cities and wont be as bothered about pubs being open.

Cornwall relies on tourism. Without it many of us would be finished. We can cope until September with no income, but after that it would be very tough indeed.

I just wonder as well what visitors are going to actually do - it's not exactly entertaining down here when everything is shut.
And as much as I understand the walking on the beaches and moors element, if that is where everyone goes, it's going to be pretty hard to keep away from crowds.

My parents lived in Cornwall. My Mum died in the only hospital. It was chaotic and clearly stretched even without Covid 19. Years ago the Royal Cornwall wasn't the only hospital in the county and illness was far better managed. Now a county that is packed with old people is served by just the one and it's madness year round as far as I can see.

No.

@ihaventgottimeforthis from what I understand from friends, Devon & Cornwall Police are doing a pretty stringent job of turning people away from beauty spots to discourage group gatherings and infringements on the social distancing rules so no loitering or sitting to enjoy the scenery or sunbathing! No cafes open if you want a cuppa or a soft drink or an ice cream or even a pee!

But there seem to be two questions going on?

Will people come in July/August?

Versus ‘why would you come when everything is closed?’

Everything is closed now. It might not be by then.

I think we can all agree that we can try to be hopeful rather than belligerent