To detest people that think they own beautiful parts of the world?

[Bumpitybumper]

I grew up in a very ugly and undesirable part of the country and now live in a tourist hotspot. I am becoming increasingly frustrated by people that are born and raised here trying to restrict tourism or stop 'outsiders' moving here. The houses are expensive here because it's such a lovely place to live but there isn't much employment except for from tourism. Despite this many locals that I know feel that tourism should be restricted as it makes the town extremely busy in high season. They also think housing should be subsidised for locals.

I feel that there are only so many beautiful places and those lucky enough to be born in them are no more entitled to live and enjoy them than the rest of us who by luck were born elsewhere. This would effectively condemn future people like me to live and visit only the less desirable of areas whilst my children could stay in this lovely area and be subsidised for doing so. It just feels incredibly unfair!

Traffic in Towns - The Buchanan Report | Urban Design Library | Urban Design Group (udg.org.uk)

On the contrary! Dr Beeching was starting his cuts at about the time that the Traffic in Towns report came out. The Traffic in Towns report was full of projections of how traffic was likely to grow that turned out to be surprisingly accurate, as we look back from 2024: they also predicted (again, very accurately) what the social effects of ever-increasing traffic would be. They actually knew pretty much what would happen.... but chose to do it anyway.

There is a good 30 minute documentary which was produced on the report, and it makes very interesting watching, especially the projections of future traffic growth.

Could you get a train

Maybe it's time to reopen some of those branch lines that buffoon beeching closed

Interesting, TBF my Dad agrees with you about Beeching and he's 77! I think near me they want to reopen the Wealden line that connects Uckfied and Lewes, this was one of his culls.

Interesting film, and interesting that they lacked the vision to build cities that didnt need cars so much rather than trying to accommodate the growth of car ownership

I didn't know about the Traffic in Towns report, so thanks for that. I always knew Beeching was a bad 'un though and hate the fact that so many branch lines were closed down.

I live in a tourist area - not in the UK.

There are very strict rules regarding housing developments here, administered and strictly monitored by the local government authorities.

Housing and developments are "zoned" or classified - i.e. there are different classifications of housing such as "Residential housing" which is only available to people who live permanently in the property; "Second Home housing" which is available, as the term suggests, to be owned as a second home or holiday home; "Tourist Accommodation" which means primarily holiday apartments that may (and in some cases must) be rented to tourists; Hotel Accommodation; and "Employee Accommodation" which is required if the shops, hotels and other businesses are to be able to accommodate their seasonal employees at a reasonable cost.

These categories are strictly controlled and breaking the rules can result in heavy fines. For example, a "Residential" house cannot be bought and used as a second home - and as there is a mandatory requirement here (and in most of Europe) to register one's permanent address, anyone found to be abusing this will face prosecution. Planning applications take into account the balance between tourist accommodation and accommodation for local residents and for the staff who will work in the tourist businesses.

The impact is that there is generally a good balance between the number of tourists and the number of local residents and the availablilty of seasonal staff accommodation. Locals are not priced out of the housing market - there are rent controls and only people officially living in the property can buy or rent a "Residential" property, which caps the value of such properties.

As for the OP wishing to move to this type of tourist area - this is entirely possible. There is no restriction on who can buy or rent, as long as they are living permanently in the property - which generally requires them to have a job or other income and to make the location "the centre of their life" (to directly translate the phrase used).

I agree with you. We used to go to a lovely beer festival in a village about 40miles away. It happened over a bank holiday and lasted Saturday to Monday. It obviously kept the 6 pubs going, as well as some local shops. The locals hated it. I remember one man telling me that he wanted the festival to stop because it caused so much disruption. Eventually the festival was restricted, the council held back on permission until so late that bookings could not be made for various additional attractions. Several years on and the event has disappeared - I imagine the 6 pubs might have disappeared as well, and some of the shops.

That sounds really interesting. Your country obviously has some very strict, top-down rules. My country makes it easy to build new houses/flats and has relatively few rules about this (except that in practice, making somewhere into a holiday let is hard because you have to get a special license, which involves a long convoluted process). Seems to me like both of these approaches can potentially work and satisfy the people in these areas.

I think the problem with the UK, perhaps, is that the rules/laws seem to be an awkard mix of too-strict and not-strict-enough. There are few laws stopping the sale of buildings to outsiders or stopping places being turned into holiday lets, but there are very rigid and inflexible planning laws that stop places being built. The result will be acute housing shortages for ordinary residents, as they can neither build new homes nor stop existing homes being taken out of circulation.