Sick of some Cornish people bleating on as though they are the worlds only tourist destination

[Endlesssummer2022]

Just read the article below and found a few gems such as these:

’ have you ever wondered where the local people live? Or have you noticed that many of your holiday neighbours are recognisable in the narrow lanes of the pretty fishing villages because they are the same people you live near in London?’

and…

‘Despite what you may have read, we Cornish do welcome visitors and are happy to share our love of our land with you. But it might help if you do a bit of research – Cornwall is fiercely independent and has a proud and unique history and heritage…* *And try not to be rude to local people. If you’ve been asked to not drink from a glass bottle on the beach, there is a reason for that. Don’t forget to tip waiting staff. ‘

What patronising bollocks. So Londoner’s (as those are apparently the only people who visit Cornwall) are so untraveled and boorish we need to be told not to be rude to people, pay tips, not to smash glass bottles in sand, that we’ve bought all of their houses, that it’s ‘their’ land and we’re the ones who are rude?

I’d already decided I wouldn’t go back there after how some of them carried on during Covid but this article has pissed me off. Why would anyone go there when they can go to equally lovely places in the UK/World and not be treated with contempt?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/29/welcome-to-cornwall-please-dont-ruin-it-for-us-local-people

🙄

What a sensible, not exaggerated at all, well thought out response to me relaying what life is like for me PERSONALLY having to live in both a tourist and university town.

Of course we don't need to shut every university in the country, but problems like mine are not uncommon and something sensible needs to be done.

Comments like yours are unhelpful and show your total ignorance on the subject.

Jog on.

Lady grinning, what is the solution then?, what changes can be made? or is it a case of us all having a little more tolerance for our fellow human beings

Son and girls went to Warsaw Poland in March. Said it was so clean

Nobody's done this though, have they?
The OP has started a thread complaining about perceived Cornish exceptionalism, as though Cornwall was the only busy tourist destination in the world. Not a thread complaining about the locals.
I might go and start a thread about how Liverpool is overrated though, it's allowed.

I wasn't trying to provide a helpful comment.🙄 I was asking a question. What do you think the solution is? As for being "ignorant", what makes you think you're the only person with experience of both a university town and tourist town? Just about every town is a university town nowadays and many are also tourist towns.

I know you weren’t aiming your question at me, @WomblingTree86 - but I’d say there are things that could be done. Start with making universities provide more, affordable student accommodation. Then teach people that, whether they are students, living temporarily in a town/city, or tourists, they should act considerately towards the local residents.

Universities are there to provide education not places to live. You wouldn't say schools, colleges or businesses should provide at accommodation for everyone who goes there or works there would you? It's not their job to police them either when not on university property or “teach” them how to act when not on campus. Does your workplace teach you how to act when you're not at work?
Students are adults. They're not children or some subspecies who can be treated differently than other adults.

Council tax accounts for around 13 per cent of council funding. The majority comes from government grants I.e general taxation.

So people can use the roads and reverse as much as you.

I didn't go outside the station in Warsaw when I visited, and that part at least was quite dismal (think Birmingham New Street). I didn't have time to see the city. Wrocław is a beautiful city however. Plenty of stunning cities in the former Yugoslavia too, but some are very run down. I want to head further east and see Bucharest.

Only if they are competent drivers. I see many around who really shouldn't be on the road.

(Not directed at any group of people in particular, there are a lot of numpties on the road).

Meant to add that I've found the likes of Paris, Brussels and Cologne to be rather grotty in parts.

And why wouldn't it have been? Travel educates, we all need to see what exists outside our own communities.

Before the locals paid the ' council tax and funded the roads' which was wrong as largely funded by central government via general taxation.

Now drivers outside Cornwall are kot competent. This is based on official stats?

*not

They do travel abroad a lot and within the UK. They visit cities for architectural reasons abroad. Back home for business reasons. We really are falling behind. Whether that's down to individuals being plain mucky or council cutbacks I couldn't say.

@WomblingTree86 - I think you have misunderstood my second point - I was not saying that universities need to teach students how to behave considerately - I meant that we, as a society, need to teach everyone to behave considerately, whether they are tourists, temporary residents like students or permanent residents somewhere.

Also, universities used to, and still do provide some accommodation for their students - I lived in Halls of Residence as a student, and all of my dses have lived in purpose built student accommodation, as well as in private rentals, so I don’t think that universities providing accommodation is as risible a notion as you think it is.

Please don't let it. We get loads of visiting Asian families. They return time and again. They're not made to feel unwelcome.

I think the point is - after many pages - that lots of places are suffering from over tourism. And Cornwall is being given a voice about it - on TV, in newspaper articles etc. Cornwall isn't going to say "Well we're not going to moan because it's the same in Snowdonia and Pitlochry".

The media go into a place with a pre planned story and they find the opinions to add meat to that story.

A couple of weeks ago there was something on Cornwall Live: "TRAFFIC HELL ON THE ROADS". They simply wanted to run a traffic hell story because the weather was nice. Yes there were tailbacks on the A30 where they're dualling it, but other than that there was no hell.

We find the problem with Cornwall is that the roads aren’t wide enough. You would have thought that with all the tourist influx in the past few years they would have widened some of them by now to accommodate the modern SUV.

We’ve been to Cornwall lots of times (from Scotland) and going again next month. Never had any issues with anyone being rude or unwelcoming.

You said “Start with making universities provide more, affordable student accommodation”.

Yes, some universities do provide a certain amount of accommodation but that's usually just for first years and it’s to encourage them to go there and also to make money rather than anything else (it’s not cheap!). It's not something universities can or should be forced to do just as you couldn't force any other business to provide staff/clients with accommodation. Many universities don't have any accommodation of their own at all and the student halls are actually owned by private companies -you can't force them to make the accommodation more affordable. You also couldn't make the students live in the buildings that the universities provide. Most wouldn't want to after the first year.

I specifically stated that I wasn't directing that comment at any groups in particular, crap driving is a nationwide issue.

I suspect that the idiot who parked his car facing the wrong way in a bus stop earlier today probably didn't get recorded in any statistics (why do some people think that sticking your hazards on means that you can park anywhere?). So no, I haven't got any statistics, just personal observations as a vulnerable road user. Not an isolated occurrence though, police around here had to tow away 40 dangerously parked cars from a mountain pass in just one afternoon a couple of months ago. A sizeable chunk of the British public should not be on the roads anywhere.

Still, this clip from Devon makes me smile every time:

We find the problem with Cornwall is that the roads aren’t wide enough. You would have thought that with all the tourist influx in the past few years they would have widened some of them by now to accommodate the modern SUV.

Brilliant.

@Paperlate I believe few Cornish people ever go "on holiday" as they are already in the best holiday destination already. At least that's what my friends who live and grew up there say. I'm inclined to agree.
I can see why a pp poster said she goes away for part of August though as it really is noticeable how busy the county is in the Summer.
I don't think her recommendation to find the hidden gems that are the beaches only the locals know about is wise.....the locals won't thank her for it!