To be shocked and bemused by the mentality of some people?

[Bbq1]

I am as horrified as most other people are, by the hordes of people descending on beaches around the UK and behaving worse than animals in many cases. Scum who defecate and urinate in public places, leave tonnes of litter and fight and drink. All for 3rd degree sunburn and possibly Coronavirus. I am just bemused by their mentality of these people. Are they selfish, thick, just don't care? I heard the most unbelievable thing on the radio earlier. The presenter lives in Bournemouth and was approached by 2 guys in their 20s early this morning asking where they could get a bacon butty. She said they were a bit early and they said they had slept on the beach on towels. After seeing Bournemouth on the news last night they had jumped in their car at 10pm and driven straight to Bournemouth from London "to join the party"...WTAF?! A party?! Who and what are these people that think that type of idea is actually a good one?

The photos they take of Bournemouth beach are always taken from the same spot (ditto Brighton); towards the town beaches. If they turned to face east, towards Southbourne, the beaches are very much less crowded. But that involves people having to walk for a few minutes, so...

@CallmeAngelina thanks for explaining that - exactly as I thought. It's people making a deliberate choice to be in a large crowd. Exactly the same in the coastal area where I live.

The scenes have been published in newspapers overseas. The rest of Europe are scratching their heads at how a nation can be so reckless.

On my stretch of coast the beach was not too crowded but the coast road from the town right down passed what is urban beach was packed with cars and campers and when the coast road was full by mid morning they started to park on the grass verges and roads leading up from the beach. Driveways were blocked, corners were parked over and what are narrow roads anyway were reduced down to single line traffic as the roads were double parked right the way down.
At the end of the day litter covered the greens and people were using the areas behind the beach huts as a public toilet as the only public toilets along the urban stretch are in the two cafes which are only operating a takeaway service both of which are supplying extra outside bins but people are too lazy to walk back and use them hence the extra trash left on the green.
I don’t begrudge anyone a day on the beach but I do begrudge my community charge being used to have to clear up after them when our other council services are cut to the bone. I only get my bins emptied forthrightly and yet the council has to clean the beach bins, the beach and green daily.
So all I ask is that people take their litter home with them or if they buy from the cafes they use the bins provided by the cafes and that they park responsibly so that the residents can still get out their drives and use the local roads.

[quote NotEverythingIsBlackandWhite]**@ChewChewIsMySpiritAnimal

"I don't condone everyone flocking to the beaches but i think calling these people things like scum, selfish, thick, and worse than animals makes you pretty scummy yourself."
Defecating and urinating on a beach, leaving litter, ignoring social distancing guidelines, descending on a town and causing mayhem by parking all over the place and then having parties including drug-taking and frightening others by fighting In front of families with children IS scummy behaviour. It IS selfish behaviour. If people are intelligent and unselfish, they wouldn't it, ergo they must be thick.

The behaviour of animals is instinctive and functional but, as humans, we have brains that enable us to rationalise and be socially aware. The people who have behaved badly on our beaches are morally bankrupt.

The people who exhibit scummy behaviour are indeed scum because they have choice and they have chosen to show disrespect towards others and our beauty spots.[/quote]
Yes, exactly.

Close all the beach car parks for a start.

People will just park elsewhere and still go. They did that over the bank holidays near me, people still went and just parked in all the other available car parks.

We popped down after BoJo allowed us to travel, no car parks open, parked perfectly legally on the road (away from the main drag)

@Pelleas

I’m afraid a lot of young people are VERY angry with the older generation.

I understand this, but if you look at the beach crowds they're by no means made up of only young people. There seem to be plenty of families and people in the 30s/40s age group there. Look at the situation with gridlocked roads and parking - that's not going to have been caused predominantly by young people, given the cost of insuring young drivers nowadays puts a car out of reach for many under 25.

And this. The main cul The majority
appear to be made up of family groups with tribes of children who are being raised with a lack if respect for others and an entitled attitude It's not all young people by any means. A pp mentioned women changing their sanitary protection on the beach...No, please tell me women aren't doing that

I'm not sure exactly what the current ruling is with regard to bins and emptying them. We went out for a long country walk last week and stopped for a mini picnic at the end on some common-land outside a pub. There were no bins anywhere (apart from an over-flowing dog-poo one).
Did we leave our rubbish dumped? Of course not. We put it in the bags we'd brought the food in and took it home.
Isn't that what "normal" people do?

Isn't that what "normal" people do?

You'd wish so, but the norm nowadays seems to be to drop the litter anywhere or, at best, leave it festering in the vicinity of an overflowing bin.

With campsites closed and no where to holiday we have had camper vans and even tents camping along the coast road and even in the conservation area.
We have bylaws against this as there are no facilities at all plus the wildlife on the conservation area is protected.
All this aside how would you like someone to come along and camp outside your house. Have nightly bbqs and sit on your garden wall chatting and playing music till the early hours? Then you get the joy of clearing up their shit and washing away their piss from outside your house.

I honestly feel people are more selfish, disrespectful and entitled than ever. Why the hell they can't clear up after themselves if they want to risk the crowds is beyond me. It's not difficult. Now they can go on holiday abroad from July perhaps they will go and be louts and make things miserable for people trying to have a nice time over there like they usually do.

The 'lockdown' measures taken were to protect the NHS from being overwhelmed. They weren't taken to protect the vulnerable. We are all doing it to protect each other so that the NHS could cope.

You are arguing semantics, to what end I don’t know. Most people aren’t likely to get very poorly at all. We did it so those that were vulnerable either were kept virus free or could access a functioning health system.

Non-essential shops (including toy shops, Game, fashion for the young), zoos, safari parks, playgrounds in parks have all opened. These aren't all for older spenders. Most aren't.
Premiership football is back - that isn't only for older spenders.

You are having a laugh now. Don’t worry your uni, school, job, friends are all pretty much inaccessible but you can pop to Game (is that even still going) for a Pac-Man cartridge or drive round a safari park with mum and a sweaty cheese sandwich.

Playgrounds aren’t open. Play team sports? Nope you still can’t do that. Fancy a swim? Not that either. Gym? Definitely not. Your weekly hobbies? All cancelled.

I don’t think vilifying people is the answer. Yes people need to pick up their rubbish and behave sensibly but you can’t take so much away from so many without consequence.

Stupid that the rules have been blurred for the last month. Allowing thousands of people to descend on cities on marches too. And then the ‘bubble’ rules which are difficult for some people to understand fully. Unfortunately we just have to hope that the majority of us, who are following the rules, will be able to cancel out the stupidity of the actions of others. Or at least reduce the risk.

I think not having public toilets open is a massive mistake - the result will be that corona will not be the only terrible illness we will have to worry about!

The littering is vile but everything else I don't give a second thought. If people want to descend on a beach then they can. Personally I can't think of anything worse than a crowded noisy beach but each to their own.

For the record Bournemouth beaches public toilets were open.

For a usual summer day people would have had access to pubs, restaurants and hotels - with extra toilets. These aren't opening until 4th July because of the current rules.

The council asked people not to inundate the area but they did anyway because it is their right to go to any beach they choose.

Am a bit weary since being active on the thread in Chat where worried residents have been told to be grateful for the income from the visitors, regard the anti-social behaviour and unsanitary activities as regrettable, not ideal and understandable because every visitor has apparently been welded into their flats for three months so going a bit nuts is to be expected. Oh, and why didn't we lay on extra facilities when it was obvious what was going to happen..... despite the fact that normally catering for 500,000 over the air show for example, not a normally term time June Thursday, is planned for months with road restrictions, park and ride, extra toilets etc etc, all of which was not anticipated nor budgeted for due to the lockdown.....

Apparently we don't own the beaches and we should co-ordinate the clean up with local businesses and volunteers (already happens) who will then appreciate visitors more.

Apparently the major incident status was a complete over-reaction that will have done untold damage to local business, it wasn't actually that bad, we're all pearl clutching matrons judging the poor lambs unfairly, and we're displaying NIMBYISM.

Which is odd because despite every argument, residents, although aggrieved, have stated to a (wo)man that visitors ARE welcome just not all at once like this creating havoc.

Sorry, just had to get that off my chest.

OldQueen1969
Bravo. I despair also.
I love the Bournemouth/New Forest area - I've half-lived there over the last 4 or 5 years whilst helping to care for my parents until they died.
It saddens me to see scenes like Thursdays, although they're not uncommon in summer months. Have sat in a queue on the 338 many times, even when it's not high-season (mind you, roadworks didn't help).

@OldQueen1969

For the record Bournemouth beaches public toilets were open.

For a usual summer day people would have had access to pubs, restaurants and hotels - with extra toilets. These aren't opening until 4th July because of the current rules.

The council asked people not to inundate the area but they did anyway because it is their right to go to any beach they choose.

Am a bit weary since being active on the thread in Chat where worried residents have been told to be grateful for the income from the visitors, regard the anti-social behaviour and unsanitary activities as regrettable, not ideal and understandable because every visitor has apparently been welded into their flats for three months so going a bit nuts is to be expected. Oh, and why didn't we lay on extra facilities when it was obvious what was going to happen..... despite the fact that normally catering for 500,000 over the air show for example, not a normally term time June Thursday, is planned for months with road restrictions, park and ride, extra toilets etc etc, all of which was not anticipated nor budgeted for due to the lockdown.....

Apparently we don't own the beaches and we should co-ordinate the clean up with local businesses and volunteers (already happens) who will then appreciate visitors more.

Apparently the major incident status was a complete over-reaction that will have done untold damage to local business, it wasn't actually that bad, we're all pearl clutching matrons judging the poor lambs unfairly, and we're displaying NIMBYISM.

Which is odd because despite every argument, residents, although aggrieved, have stated to a (wo)man that visitors ARE welcome just not all at once like this creating havoc.

Sorry, just had to get that off my chest.

It's pretty clear that those posters who showed up on that thread yesterday were deliberately being provocative (not allowed to use the t word) or they are anti-social 's themselves who were defending their right to behave any way they choose on holiday so long as they put a bit of money into the local economy.

Agree about the insistence of some posters on minimising the situation on t'other thread..... in fact the repetitive language and refusal to countenance anything other than the "economy" argument made me wonder, just a little, if it was some sort of AI bot...... but no, that's my conspiracy head getting ahead of itself - I have given it a good wobble

I don't think there is anything in the world that can excuse the kind of behaviour we have seen these last few weeks. I get that people are feeling hard done by (I've been stuck in a tiny flat - still working thankfully - and not seen anyone in the flesh except my DH since 13 March) but instead of going out and adding to havoc why not find something meaningful to do with your time?

I wonder how many of the people turning up on these beaches were the same ones marching in the streets about climate change...now they're crapping into plastic cups and not giving a toss about what washes into the sea. Feeling disillusioned? Feeling like the world/the older generation has let you down? How about doing something more practical to create a shift in your future? Nah...let's go pish on the beach instead....

@TheGreatWave

And as for closing beaches, how the hell do you do that?

They closed Bondi beach in Australia back in March when too many people were going there.

www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/mar/21/bondi-beach-closed-down-after-crowds-defy-ban-on-gatherings-of-more-than-500-people

The government could have imposed a travel restriction, as Wales did.

Then you would not have had people driving for 3 hours to spend the day at a crowded beach.

Even without COVID it baffles me that anyone would actively choose to go and spend the day on a beach with 500000 other people. I can’t imagine what can possibly be enjoyable about that.

As for people blaming the government for this and that, honestly, the amount of handholding people expect from the government is phenominal.

So people flock to the beaches, apparently it’s the government’s fault for allowing it.

The government allow pubs to open, and people complain about that because it’s too soon.

The government tell people they can mix households, but that shouldn’t be allowed.

And the list continues.

What happened to people taking personal responsibility? Just because the pubs are opening going to them hasn’t suddenly become mandatory. If you don’t think it’s safe going to the pub then don’t go. The same with going to people’s houses and flocking to the beach. It isn’t rocket science.

There will definitely be questions to be answered from the government after all this is over. But if there is a second wave, then it will be the public who seem incapable of using common sense who will be to blame.

However, in defence of the people making those questionable choices, our lockdown as a whole has been ineffective and pointless because we didn't do it quickly or harshly enough, and no amount of beach gatherings is going to convince me

Since when does someone else's irresponsible behaviour give you permission to be just as irresponsible? Do you not have a mind of your own?

I wonder how many of the people turning up on these beaches were the same ones marching in the streets about climate change

They'll be the same ones 'virtue signalling' by glad-handing the NHS!

Any chance of some people obeying reasonable requests and common sense ended when Dominic Cummings was not sacked.

I am still ashamed by the behaviour of some British people though, and now when on holiday abroad do my utmost to avoid being identified as British. No clothing with anything on it that identifies me as British, will have French translations not English at any cultural attractions and a number of other things.