To say please don't go to your second home

[Beesisabuzzin]

With talk of London going into lockdown tomorrow can I remind second home owners that Cornwall has one hospital. Devon has four hospitals. Where I live in Devon there is no food in any of the supermarkets. Please, please stay away, our communities cannot deal with an influx.

All the second-home owners I know are Boomers, not Londoners. They're all in their sixties

Oh bollocks are they all in their sixties. North Norfolk and Suffolk coastal is absolutely awash with yummy mummies and daddies with their little Jolyons and Ophelias who spill out of their humungous four by fours with all their Waitrose groceries every Friday evening in these places. And in school holidays the mummies and sprogs are there all week while daddy comes down at weekends.

There has always been an insular mindset from some in these more remote communities but right now they have a bloody good point. It is wrong on all levels to travel from one place to somewhere else to get away from a highly populated (and therefore affected) area to a less populated one.
This.

Don't toddle off to communities that have fewer resources and provisions due to smaller permanent populations.

It's almost like some people always think they are a special case.
It's ok for THEM to go to the gym.
It's ok for THEIR children to go to school even though a parent is at home because DH would rather not supervise his kids.
It's ok for THEM to want special exemption from shopping limits.
It's ok for THEM to travel.
It's ok for THEM to go off for a day trip.
It's ok for THEM to be a burden on smaller communities.

When the country goes into lockdown it will be in part because some people can't see they're not that special.

No way all 60s. Loads of second home owners with young dc.

It’s not ‘our’ infection ffs. And I really couldn’t give a rotten sausage up a rats arse if you don’t like me. I’m saving my dads life.

But fuck the lives of people in other communities, right?

My dad is terminally ill and the longer this goes on the less likely it is I'll get to say goodbye. But obviously if its your dad...

Even Boris wants you to go home @Toomuchtrouble4me

Oh bollocks are they all in their sixties.

The ones I know (living in Yorkshire) who own second homes elsewhere are all PiL's generation; every single one is sixty or over. The ones you like to sell your houses to see in your area may well be of a different demographic.

Like to sell our houses to ?
Some people locally have refused to sell their houses to anyone who wants a second home. Second homes destroy areas, and are generally hated by the local community. Second homers are certainly not welcomed , they bring in nothing at all compared with how much they destroy.
We also get hoards of forty somethings with young children in tow, there were some out in my village yesterday. Fewer older second home owners here, the older people tend to come here to retire, which brings its own set of issues, but at least doesn’t lead to the loss of a GP.

The ones I know (living in Yorkshire) who own second homes elsewhere are all PiL's generation; every single one is sixty or over. The ones you like to sell your houses to see in your area may well be of a different demographic.

Millenium. Yes, obviously a different demographic which demonstrates that your statement that all second home owners are over 60 is incorrect. You’re obviously given to inventing facts to fit your narrative though as you make the wildly inaccurate assumptions that a) it is my area and b) that I have ever sold a house to a second homer. What bizarre thinking.

I'm not a second home owner by the way, and not defending them. Having lived in a rural area utterly ruined by caravaners, and worked in the NHS there where I saw the effects of the seasonal visitors on locals services, I'm not a fan of either. However, that doesn't change my observations.

Alexa I didn't say that, you might want to read my post again.

And someone's selling those properties to the second home owners. Obviously.

Not everyone who sells a house knows that it will be a second home though. We have had people lie for a start. Sometimes people just really need to sell and can’t hold out.

It doesn't absolve them from all responsibility though, imo. There can't be buyers if there aren't any sellers.

Alexa I didn't say that, you might want to read my post again.

You said what I’ve copied and pasted above so I don’t see how you’re now saying you didn’t.

There can't be buyers if there aren't any sellers.

However, this something I do agree with Millenium. Every one of those homes, whether in Yorkshire, the Lake District, East Anglia or the West Country etc. that are now second homes were once owned by a local family. A local family who at some time over the years must have sold the house/cottage/barn to a buyer who isn’t local and didn’t intend to live in it as a permanent home. So all those places that are like ghost towns midweek and throughout the winter should really hold responsible the original inhabitants, the locals, who sold out, many making a handsome profit in the process.

From your copy and paste of my post: The ones I know (living in Yorkshire) who own second homes elsewhere are all PiL's generation; every single one is sixty or over.

Not (from your post): your statement that all second home owners are over 60

They're different things, see?

You know the majority of second homes makes up the staycation market don’t you? When we were all banging on about holidays at home and not flying abroad, where do you think people were staying? They weren’t all in caravan parks and hotels. We’ve holidayed in Britain for years and every time we’ve booked a cottage to stay in. We even take the dog with us. Never understood the pointless argument and bile directed towards second homes. They don’t all sit empty all year until their owner pops down for a break, they’re mostly rented out to earn some of the bloody cost back. And before anyone assumes I own one - I wish - I don’t but I do earn good money looking after them, which now means me and all my fellow cleaners have lost our jobs. Have none of the people moaning on here seriously never stayed in a holiday cottage before?

Most MPs have second homes (some like Tony Blair own multiple homes). Yes I know they need somewhere to stay when in London but nothing stopping them having some kind of MP's version of student halls of residences. Someone on another thread seemed convinced the MPs are taking their own advice not to travel. So I presume they're all staying in London. Does anyone know this for sure? I'm wondering if they've travelled or plan to travel to their home constituencies?

I have no problem with people owning a second home if it doesn't prevent a local from affording one. But at present the guidance is stay put, don't add pressure to fragile local services

Cumbria has been really badly hit despite a small population which doesn’t tend to move around a big county that much. We are 4th outside London. How does that happen without people coming in?

How does that happen without people coming in
People returning home. Over the past couple of months people from all over the UK have gone on holiday or a business trip. Then returned home. Schools across the UK went on ski trips to Italy over half term and plenty of other people did the same or another holiday somewhere. So much travel nowadays - UK and abroad. That's how it spread and that's why we needed a lockdown weeks ago.

I mean people don’t move around the county much, yet we’ve high levels and low population

That's exactly why the government should've put us all into lockdown weeks ago. People wouldn't have travelled to Cumbria if there had been lockdown. Some people unfortunately don't listen to or care about advice.

Apparently Kirsty Allsopp came down to Devon with her entire family, knowing her husband had it, to convalesce. Then her sister contracted it and took it back to Edinburgh. So that's nice.

Wishing him a speedy recovery. AT HOME, FFS.

If everyone does this, the 20% who need hospitalisation will take up all the beds locally in no time. We just don't have the infrastructure. These people are totally and utterly fucking selfish.

That's poor behaviour. Whether it's right or not I sympathise with scared people who went to a holiday home in an attempt to self isolate (bringing their own provisions) particularly if they're in a vulnerable group, but it was already in her family! I obviously wish them a speedy recovery.

I posted on these threads because I didn't like the way some posters focused on Londoners as if they all own second homes. They don't. Many can't afford one home (one reason being second homers with a London "bolt hole"...). Second homers are also not solely Londoners. However I agree that people shouldn't have been travelling around putting others at risk. Anywhere. Cities, towns, or countryside.