Seadide stupidly busy

[mummydoris2006]

I live in a seaside resort (Slegness) and today it is absolutely heaving with people. I understand new guidelines say you can drive and enjoy the beach etc for the day but people are really taking the Mickey!

The beach has human excrement on it, the queues for supermarkets are worse as people are queing hoping they can use the toilet and one person even knocked on a residents door and asked if his pregnant girlfriend could use the toilet. Upon being told no he told the homeowner they were out of order as she was pregnant and they'd drove from Essex.

I keep seeing threads where people that live by the sea etc are being slated for not welcoming visitors but the reality is due to the amount of people flocking to the coast we can't safely enjoy our own hometown, the streets are far to narrow to be able to stay 2m away from people with the influx of visitors.If any local dares to comment we are immediately hit with the "you wouldn't have jobs if it wasnt for us". Neither my own or any of my families jobs are tourist reliant and amazingly we manage to keep our economy going well enough during the winter months.

I understand people want a bit of normality and it's really hard on children but surely you should respect the place you visit and as people that live here all year round we should be able to safely enjoy our own hometown.

Human excrement on the beaches? Really? In full view of the “massively crowded” beaches? I call crap 😉

The government should have placed a limit on the number of miles travel. Less pressure on the most popular places and less on the service stations, recovery companies and everything else.

Other than closing car parks and other facilities what else can the council do to stop people going to the beach

Well it hasn’t stopped them, has it? So let’s have a good old dose of typhoid to go with the Covid. Like I said, totally irresponsible.

The government should have placed a limit on the number of miles travel. Less pressure on the most popular places
You want the airports totally closed? It's a bit late now. Temporarily back in January might've been a good idea perhaps. The most popular places, London for example, has certainly had a lot of visitors over the past couple of months. Hundreds of thousands.
I'm with the mayor. No need to close the airports. Checks and quarantine should suffice.

Shitting on the beach!!! Well at the very least hopefully that knowledge will put other people off. Stay Nearish Home, Don't Shit On The Beach, Save Lives. Honestly, common sense - avoid popular destinations!

I think a lot of the people today who were on the beach where I live probably lived within 30 miles inland from here. Lots of cars parked nose to nose along the coast road and quite a few camper vans as well. People who live local would probably go slightly further along as the beach is better and there is better parking.

If you wanted privacy for an open air poo there is also plenty of bushy areas around the green or gaps behind beach huts so I doubt anyone is dropping their pants on the pebbles.

See articles messages below from tourist boards trying to discourage tourism for the moment in local beauty spots.

We are doing the same boring local walks daily and avoiding driving 20 or 30 miles to really pretty places on our door step yet idiots think its ok to drive 50 plus miles for exercise and a visit harassing the locals and shitting on the beaches etc.

Yes, no wonder Boris has gone into hiding. He must want a second wave sooner rather later.

To the couple of posters saying that surely people could use the toilets as they'd wipe everything down before and after anyway?

These are people who are pooing and weeing on beaches and in people's gardens... I don't think they have a shred of common decency in them.

A beach local to me (same one as @FiveGoMadInDorset I think) has an incredibly narrow road down to it which usually has a massive car park with toilets and cafes at the top of it.

People have been posting on Facebook about being threatened because they won't let people in their houses to use the loo, about how they have found people using their gardens as toilets. Posting about entire extended families travelling in convoy then all wandering down to the beach together to have a massive family gathering. The other beauty spot just over the hill has a very narrow steep path to it. It has one handrail. I dread to think how many snotty manky hands rubbed all over it at at the weekend.

Yeah, people want to get out if the house and it's technically legal now... but it's not sensible.

Re the camper vans not sure they are the right source of ire - probably people are taking them so they actually have a toilet with them. ;) Doesn't mean they are staying overnight in them.

People have been posting on Facebook about being threatened because they won't let people in their houses to use the loo, about how they have found people using their gardens as toilets. Posting about entire extended families travelling in convoy then all wandering down to the beach together to have a massive family gathering

I've seen this as well.

Some people are disgusting. My toddler has been caught short in the woods before but i was prepared, shouldn't you always be with young kids? Especially if a big day trip.

I hope people are calling the police if being threatened and turning the hoses on the mingers.

I'm desperate to get further away but our toilets are all closed by the councils directive. They've been quite emphatic on websites stating its the risk of covid19 and given the way some dirty mingers used the bathroom prepandemic (shit and piss on walls, blood on seats and floor).

The councils and police of these areas should be hot on this though, enforcing car parks to be closed or distanced between them. Keeping loos closed and making it common knowledge but the public take the most responsibility for a) if not social distancing having sweet fa sense b) not checking on facilities c) not being prepared if facilities were closed or overrun and d) not having the common sense to turn back home when seeing how packed places are.

I'm with the cynics wondering about engineering a second wave and spike where they can, rightly in some cases, blame public lack of common sense

I really don't know how you can blame the government and say they're engineering a second wave when at no point has anyone said lockdown is lifted go and have a jolly good day out at the beach. People have no common sense at all.

But they have said that people can travel as far as they like. They have said sunbathing is ok. So it’s not hard to see how that will extend to people flocking to beaches especially those who can’t apply common sense.

Their argument is that the guidance allows it so why shouldn’t they?

Ahh, Tableclothing, I think I know where that is! NE by any chance? (and no I wasn't there)

Because they have seen how a minority of people ignore social distancing and lockdown, yet didn't consider they'd get worse if encouraged to return to tourist and beauty spots? They also didn't consider the people desperate to get out whose common sense may be overridden by the chance to get away.

Even my friends 12 year old who saw the broadcast turned and said 'is everyone going to local beauty spot now then mummy?' If a 12 year old can consider thd lack of common sense of people then the government should have and worked with local councils and police to ensure places weren't overrun. Or been more speific and spelled out 'social distancing for dummies'.

Humans are flawed and seem to lack far more common sense when the sun comes out. Add that to opening schools and nurseries which will have kids mixing and has already encouraged people to think understandably if 'anne is in school with begonia mixing then our families may as well meet too'.

Although I see your point, what you are actually saying is that because you are lucky enough to live by the sea, it should be reserved for you and other locals, as it has been for the last 9 weeks. All you plebs who weren't clever enough to live somewhere nice and have been stuck looking at concrete for 9 weeks can continue to do so.

Perhaps all the people lucky enough to live by the sea or in beauty spots could stay at home for a bit, and give other people a chance for a change of scenery?

We haven't been able to go out because our built up area is full of elderly people wandering back and forth and we can't get anywhere nice on foot.

@ScarletZebra actually as a seaside resident that's exactly what I have to do, I live a 10 minute walk from the beach and last time we went for a walk up there it was so busy I've decided not to go anymore. I'm not lucky or clever to live by the sea, it was my choice and I should be able to enjoy my local beach but last time it was heaving and we were unable to maintain social distancing.
I've seen pictures of the prom full of people, litter and even dirty nappies.
People will do as they please but tourists will not be made welcome in my town.

Although I see your point, what you are actually saying is

Classic mumsnet logic!

I know a beach that very few people know about, a friend went yesterday and took a photo for me. It's deserted so we are off there today!

And in a few weeks/months when lockdown is finally lifted, there will be calls for the UK population to support UK coastal resorts rather than go abroad. To try and boost the economies in these areas. To support UK hoteliers, restaurants, souvenir tat shops, who have already lost a substantial amount of revenue this year over the 4 bank holidays we have lost.

We have been told we can travel, we have been told we can sunbathe, we have been told we can visit beauty spots. If local councils haven't had the forethought to open public conveniences while they try and organize social distancing (they've only had 8 weeks to think about how that might work ) then blame them for people defecating outside. ( although I think if the beaches are all as busy as the media would have us believe - it's highly unlikely someone has pulled their pants down and taken a shit in full view of everyone on the beach)

And not all beaches are heaving. We visited a beautiful sandy beach on the east coast on Tuesday (shock horror, 80 miles from home) and it was pretty much empty all the way along. In each little bay bit between the groynes there were no more than 3 families. Yes the toilets were shut, and yes I took a nature wee behind the hedge in the big field/car park. So I think the media have possibly gone out of their way to go to the bigger, more well known places to make their point. Friends also went out yesterday to a beach not far from where we had gone the previous day, and that was empty too.

And to add to that, anyone we did see - parking meter man, dog walkers (presumably locals) and the few other people walking along the sea front were all very pleasant, said hello or a nod/smile, clearly not chasing non locals out of the area with pitchforks.

And in a few weeks/months when lockdown is finally lifted, there will be calls for the UK population to support UK coastal resorts rather than go abroad

Yes, and rightly so.

ITonyah but when lockdown first occurred, there were cries of 'don't come to your second homes' 'you're not welcome here' because the hospitals won't cope. Now we can move freely, and it's 'don't come here, the toilets are shut - you're not welcome here' Can you not see the hypocrisy?

No. The first was at the beginning of lockdown. The second is at an odd time where lockdown hasn't been lifted fully, and we are relying on people to be sensible, and councils haven't had time to put measures in place (five days warning). The third stage will be, lockdown lifted, measures in place, all good.

That isn't hypocrisy, that's sensible.

I'm afraid I disagree- the councils have had 8 weeks to plan for the reopening of their public spaces/toilets etc. in some form or another. Sadly the Public Sector is not good at forward planning, lacks the imagination to think how they might have to act in the face of something like this. Some local councils have managed it - so it is not impossible.

Since day 1 of lockdown when I had to shut my business completely I have been planning various different ways we may be able to open depending on rules imposed by government, it makes good business sense to do so, so the moment we are given the go ahead, hopefully we will have covered all bases and can hit the ground running.

There are thousands of family without access to gardens or limited green spaces in inner cities, if they have been given the go ahead to move freely they should be allowed to, and they shouldn't be made to feel unwelcome by the same residents who will be keen for things to return to normal once lockdown is lifted.

I think the irony of telling people to stay away now or be told 'you're not welcome' when these same people have probably lined their pockets over previous years and will do so again I the future is laughable.

When tourism is opened back up there will the infrastructure and the seasonal workers needed to deal with the demands of it - the public toilets, the additional litter bins, the litter pickers, the car park attendants, the extra bin collections, additional shop staff, the PCSOs and enforecement officers moving people on ticketing for littering/illegal parking, etc. Right now that infrastructure isn't there so all these people descending on tourist areas are putting a strain on local services that aren't currently prepared for additional people, they are forcing out the residents who - shocking as it seems to some - have a right to use facilities and outdoor spaces in their local area.

I posted this on another thread but this was shared by several people on my FB this morning about daytrippers at a local beach. The same beach a photograph was posted of earlier in the thread. All the people who don't litter, who don't make a nuisance of themselves, who do socially distance, and who therefore think they should be allowed to travel don't seem to realise that if they are allowed then the Shithead Tourists are also allowed and that these shitheads do litter, they don't socially distance, they do cause nuisance. Right now, tourist areas aren't set up to deal with so the sensible thing is that everyone stays away and then comes back to enjoy the area once restrictions ease a bit more and these areas have everything set up to support tourism once again.