To go to Whitby beach tomorrow

[BubblyBarbara]

I’ve gone to Whitby every year for the past decade or so and I’m missing it dearly. I’ve read Boris’s PDF and it says you are allowed to drive any distance to “open space” from tomorrow so my plan is to go to Whitby and spend the day on the beach - social distancing of course.

But I did a search on Facebook about car parks etc (it’s ok the parking inspectors are furloughed so I can park anywhere I like) and found lots of angry posts on local groups about how the people of Whitby don’t want people coming into their town yet

It’s legal for me to go tomorrow but the locals don’t want us to go.. who is BU here? I say the law is more important than what the locals say.

I have the bladder of a gnat, so would be a no for me. I live by the sea, saw it for the first time in eight weeks yesterday. Parked the car on empty prom opened the windows and smelled the ozone. Wonderful. Only parked for a few minutes in case the police came by.

So many links and sensible comments later and we still have 'have a lovely day OP, those damn locals don't own the beach'.

Knuckledraggers everywhere alas

I love this idea that somehow the whole population of Whitby must live right next to the beach and will be unable to emerge from their houses tomorrow because of the throng of tourists.
This might be the case in little Cornish fishing villages but there aren't a lot of houses between the places we normally park and the beach - it's shops, restaurants, chippies and seafood stalls, most of which I imagine will be shut.
Have fun op.

You're being utterly selfish! No, don't go tomorrow.

People who are lucky enough to live in nice places shouldn't be so selfish. A few extra people keeping 2 m away doesn't present any covid risk. Park responsibly, take a picnic, enjoy.

I have a relative living in that area. It has been rammed with day trippers recently.

I'd avoid it for your own safety.

@snacksizeraisin

Its not just a few extra people. On a nice day at 8pm it can take 3 hours to do a 20 minute stretch of road out of our town. You are naieve to think it's just a few, its literally thousands.

@SnackSizeRaisin

“@adoptadatimprove

Lol at this We have two small grocery shops, but some people have to go further afield for groceries: if we all shopped here there wouldn’t be enough space to stock what we need.

I'm guessing you don't own any of these shops? More likely you all usually shop at a supermarket cos it's cheaper and your local shops rely on tourists to survive. Now it suits you to shop locally you are suddenly worried about the local shops”

Not at all. The local shops are a Co-op convenience store and a tiny Londis, so not family owned places, mine or anyone else’s. But still not big enough to feed the town, by any means. Lots of the local elderly people still do their traditional walk into town to get groceries daily or every couple of days, though, so that’s the sort of numbers they normally cater for, apart for the odd milk and bread top up, or snacks etc. In normal times most of us get big shops from supermarkets in larger nearby towns, or get home deliveries, and people are still doing both those things here. What will the older folks or those who don’t drive do if tourists come and strip the shelves? We’re not all selfish bastards, you know - communities do still look out for their more vulnerable members. No need for your cynicism.

You've missed it, aww diddums.

Whitby has been relatively untouched by Covid, why the hell would your your yearnings override the actual safety of the people there.

For the people who don't know the place, yes the touristy parts are always crowded because being an old fishing village, they're narrow.

If you're an hour away there are plenty of other places you could go to get some fresh air, you're on the edge of several National Parks.

Grow up.

People who are lucky enough to live in nice places shouldn't be so selfish. A few extra people keeping 2 m away doesn't present any covid risk

I don’t live in Whitby but I live in a “nice place”. There are several spots at the local attraction where it is physically impossible to distance the required 2m. Not so much a problem when there’s a few people, big problem when people arrive in droves.

I was going to say if you do go, help out a bit by taking your own food and drink and not bothering the shops. But presumably you'll still need to use the loos in the supermarket anyway...

I live at a coastal town and walked down to the beach today. It was busy. And everything was shut, and the queue outside the supermarket was really long. I can't see that it's worth it for a day out really... Whitby isn't going anywhere. I'm sure you'll be able to visit at some point in 2020 when the shops and cafes are actually open and you don't have to queue for 60 minutes to have a pee at Morrisons...

@HavenDilemma

I don't know if this is the same situation as @MarieQueenofScots, but here's some information from the Land Registry re road ownership:

Frontagers
As stated above a frontager is the owner of a property that faces onto the road. In common law the owner of a property will generally own up to the mid-point of the road that his property faces onto. That being the case, where a road requires work to be carried out each of the frontagers facing onto the road, on each side thereof, are responsible for their share of the expense. It therefore follows that there is a need to establish the ownership of each frontager in order to arrange for payment of the requisite expense.

www.land-search-online.co.uk/information/who-owns-a-private-road/

I live by the beach (not in whitby) and interestingly they only place that paring wardens are operating is by the seafront. Literally. I live two roads away and for a variety of reasons to do with a company car just before lockdown and trying to get a residents permit , the wardens are officially not working the residential roads. However they are ticketing like crazy any car near the seafront for the slightest thing.

Its difficult, I in theory have no problem with people coming from tommorrow

Provided .....

They follow social distancing ...properly
They don't behave like entitled idiots ( which frankly they usually do every summer ...assuming they can behave however they wish )
And they behave responsibly so that the locals can still take their DC etc out for exercise as well because it's our local area. Including not doing stupid things that cause them to have an accident and use up our A and E spaces ( we are fortunate to have a big hospital....which still gets overcrowded in the summer because Kev visiting from south twattdon thought it would be great banter to jump off of the seawall and broke his ankle )

However as the chance of the above happening with everyone is slim to none I strongly expect to get annoyed and angry when some entitled twat gets too close to my DC on our walk because they are legally allowed to be there.

So honestly OP if you behave appropriately and considerately that is one thing but dont be an arse. Also be prepared that other people will be entitled and unpleasant and that will piss the locals off and unfortunately they don't know which type you are and will probably glare ( a lot).

People who are lucky enough to live in nice places shouldn't be so selfish. A few extra people keeping 2 m away doesn't present any covid risk

If one family in every street decides to go for a day at the seaside, most beaches will be rammed like ours was today. With kids whining that the bucket shop is shut and there's nowhere to get an icecream, and the coin operated public loos have been locked - so everyone heads to our one supermarket...

We've had one death in our town, we've been lucky so far, but I suppose it's only "fair" that our local elderly population gets hit now, right? And pretty much all seaside towns have a high elderly population. I really hope this is not going to be Boris's latest fuck up, but I'm not optimistic.

Well people are allowed to drive anywhere as long as they return the same day so technically you wouldn’t be do anything wrong.

I don’t agree with what Borris has told people to do or don’t do, I’m angry that it’s going to cause loads of people to descend on beaches and other popular locations. People need to be sensible and stay local.

I have to travel 45 minutes in the car tomorrow to collect an essential item, I will be 5 minutes from the beach, I would live to go but I won’t be, will be collecting the item and driving back, I might stop off on the way back to go for a walk a few miles from home.

I’m sure many of us would love to go to the beach but is it really worth it? Beaches will get really busy and it will be hard to social distance.

I think that it would be reasonable for you to go subject to the following:
1 if you get there and it is too crowded for you to socially distance you leave immediately
2 you stay for a couple of hours at the most
3 if more people arrive so that it is getting too crowded and you have been there more than an hour then you leave immediately

Part of safe social distancing is sharing the spaces. The days of going somewhere for a whole day are gone for the moment

Thanks @ACupOfCoffee, it is a very similar situation. Brought about by a very unique set of circumstances, but still genuine all the same

It sounds like you live somewhere near me. It's not going anywhere. It really isn't fair on the locals.

Besides, all public places (including toilets!) are closed, so once you get there, there's no where to wee 🤷🏻‍♀️.

Yabu. Dont go. It's not fair on the locals and where will you wee?
Everyone is missing things. I'm sure you have nice local places even if it's not by the seaside.

The 2 metres away is not necessarily 100% safe. There's NO guarantee that you definitely will not get it. Stay at home as much as possible.

Where I live on the South Coast our local council has decided to reopen all the car parks, some public toilets, takeaway kiosks on the beach and people can use their beach huts!! Also, skate parks, bowling greens but playgrounds still shut - unbelievable!

are the parking wardens furloughed coz theyre not here-actually theyve blocked all parking on the seafront just to stop this happening

SnackSizeRaisin

Clearly you've never seen the descending of the five thousand on a seaside town (not a problem in itself) but more importantly how some of them behave. Selfish? You have no idea, last year some animal spat on my then 3years shoes as he was walking past and when I said something responded with " I'm on holiday , you should be glad for the tourists , I'm spending money here " that's not me being selfish.

Our " luck" (which in my case took years of planning and a huge effort to get to live by the sea....I'm not remotely rich etc but it wasn't bloody luck) does not need to be guilt tripped thanks. I'm fine with people visiting if they are respectful , as I am when (before covid) I visit elsewhere. I am not fine with people being asses in my metaphorical back yard and I bet you wouldn't be either.

I love Whitby. We went twice last year. April and September. It was heaving and you couldn't walk and social distance. So if everyone thought like you then it will be busy and wouldnt be fare to those that live there to have to face a possible increase of infection or whatever they have to deal with when tourists have been and gone. Just wait till its safer. The beach will still be there. You wouldnt be able to purchase food or use the loos. Be kind to those that live there x

It's not fair on the locals and where will you wee?

The supermarket. Though ours is still enforcing the one shopper at a time rule with the queue snaking right around the outside of the carpark, so it's probably a good idea for daytrippers to bring clothing changes for their dc's too...