You can’t park there! Cornish locals slam ‘idiot’ holidaymakers who had to be rescued by
Cornish locals have slammed ‘idiot’ holidaymakers who had to be rescued by lifeguards after driving on to a beach and getting stranded in their cars.
Lifeguards could be heard on the loudspeaker warning the tourists to not park on the beach, however the announcement came too late to save the cars from sinking into the soft sand.
Comical footage showed four cars stuck on Towan Beach in the popular tourist town of Newquay after the motorists decided to ignore conventional parking spots and drive their vehicles right on to the sand.
In the video, a group of bemused surfers can be seen walking past the cars on their way to the water as a lifeguard tries to remedy the all-too-familiar situation for locals.
Connor Duffy, 33, a chef from Newquay, said the ‘idiot summer’ had begun after he spotted the vehicles recklessly making their way on to the beach. He said motorists made the same mistake at least once a week despite road signs warning them to stay off.
Cornish locals have slammed ‘idiot’ holidaymakers who had to be rescued by lifeguards after driving onto the beach and getting stranded in their cars
Thousands of tourists visit Newquay every summer for its excellent surfing and lively nightlife, but locals aren’t always best pleased with how they treat their town.
Mr Duffy explained how the motorists all drove down together, but it did not look like they knew each other.
He added: ‘They then had to get two RNLI trucks to leave their posts of lifeguarding to come and sort them out. They had to be pulled out by locals as no tractors could be called in.
‘Then they had to clear the ramp as they each took turns at speeding up the beach and onto the ramp without getting stuck again.
‘Lifeguards tried to sort it as quickly as possible, and did so.’
Mr Duffy said a crowd soon gathered and were seen chanting ‘you can do it!’ before cheering when the cars were finally removed from the deep sand and taken up the ramp.
He added: ‘Just shows common sense isn’t really that common. Happens at least once a week now due to tourists not reading the signs and thinking that they are fine to do so.
‘It’s the same with the bins on the beaches, tourists put still-burning coals in the bin and set it on fire.
‘Fire engines are down all the time over the summer because people don’t know how to go to the beach, safely. Shame really.
Connor Duffy (pictured), 33, a chef who is from Newquay, said that ‘idiot summer’ has begun after he spotted the vehicles drive onto Towan Beach
In the video, a group of bemused surfers can be seen walking past the drivers on their way to the water, as a lifeguard tries to rescue the situation
Locals and tourists have clashed in the past. Here, in St Anne’s, a second-home property was targeted by residents with graffiti
‘But this was funnier to watch than anything too serious. Some say entitled people, but it was just a bunch of silly people who don’t think very hard.’
It comes less than a week after another ‘idiot’ tourist parked their £25,000 Mercedes GLe SUV on the sand in Newquay as well.
The car was eventually towed off the beach by a local tractor and taken to a local garage.
Further up the south-west coast in Devon, more motorists found themselves in trouble after torrential rain left them unable to move their cars.
The North Devon Show was forced to close its car parks and cancel the event yesterday due to health and safety concerns.
Pictures of the car park show tractors assisting vehicles unable to move from the mid.
One person took to social media to say: ‘It took us 3 hours or more to get out the car park as we were just sat in a queue that wasn’t moving!
‘I think this needs to be looked at for next year. Poor lady in front of me was pregnant and nearly wetting herself!’
DEVON: A tractor was sent out to assist vehicles which got stuck in the mud at the North Devon Show yesterday
DEVON: Festival-goers’ cars ended up stuck in the mud for hours following torrential rain yesterday
Every year, some of Britain’s wealthiest families descend on large parts of Cornwall and holiday in their second homes for the summer.
But second-home owners could soon be forced to pay twice the amount of council tax as the Government prepares to hand local authorities more powers to raid holiday homes.
More than 100,000 holiday homeowners in the UK are set to see their bills rise at the first given chance, including in tourist hotspots in Cornwall, which has already approved the change.
In the past, Cornish residents have sprayed graffiti on second homes, demanding, ‘Rent or sell your empty houses to local people at a fair price’.
Last month, CCTV cameras were deployed at a beauty spot beach in Polzeath, Cornwall, as part of a crackdown on anti-social behaviour by youngsters at night.
The cameras at Polzeath have an infra-red function to monitor the beach in the dark, when young people have been seen drinking, taking drugs, having sex and littering.
Beach rangers have also raised particular alarm about the behaviour of some public school children and have visited their headteachers to explain the concerns.
Two cameras have now been provided by the council to help beach rangers and police who have two officers patrolling at night. It follows years of concern about the behaviour of youngsters which led to a dispersal order being granted last summer.
The area is a holiday hotspot enjoyed by the likes of David Cameron, who enjoys trips there with his family and has been seen bodyboarding at the beach. The former PM, who left Downing Street in 2016, owns a £2million holiday home in the village of Trebetherick, less than a mile from the beach.
Beach Ranger Andy Stewart, 53, has been patrolling the beach nightly with two local cops and security staff from the Surfside restaurant trying to manage the hoards of public school kids, many as young as 12, who flock there to party.
And his efforts seem to have worked.
Andy, a retired local police officer who started as a Beach Ranger in 2019, confirmed ‘the problems have eased and there is no more ongoing monitoring or enforcement’.