Families across the UK’s tourist hotspots say they dread the vast hordes of visitors that bring chaos to their doorsteps every bank holiday.
Overcrowding, out of order public toilets and parking disputes are just some of the issues plaguing picture postcard honeypots, with some locals even reporting being threatened by angry visitors looking to park on their drives.
Entire coachloads of new arrivals descend on some of the UK’s small and quaint villages on bank holidays, such as the beautiful Bourton-on-the-Water in Gloucestershire, to soak up the sun and enjoy the idyllic surroundings.
Meanwhile in Whitby, North Yorkshire, even some of the local traders are complaining that tourism is getting too much, while in Salcombe, Devon, business owners say high housing costs driven by tourism make it difficult to find staff.
And Saturday once again saw locals left frustrated by the issues caused by overcrowding, from selfie takers blocking the road while posing for photographs to the vast queues forming outside local cafes.
Shops in Bourton-On-The-Water in Gloucestershire saw massive queues as tourists flocked to the village over the bank holiday weekend on Saturday
Families across the UK’s tourism hotspots have said the May Bank Holiday brings hell to their doorstep each year. Pictured is Bourton-On-The-Water on May 25
Long queues outside sandwich and ice cream shop in Bourton-On-The-Water on Saturday
Overcrowding, car parking issues and out of order public toilets are just some of the issues to plague local areas like Bourton-On-The-Water (pictured on Saturday)
Picnickers in Bourton-on-the-Water (pictured), near Cheltenham in Gloucestershire
Parish and district councillor Jon Wareing says Bourton-On-The-Water is buckling under the weight of an ever increasing number of daytrippers.
He said a visitor recently threatened one of his neighbours after being asked not to park on his drive.
‘People can spend an hour in their car, driving around. Some of the ”difficult” behaviour that follows is because they get frustrated.
‘One of my neighbours asked this person not to park on his property and got threatened with violence. He said he knew where they lived if they did anything to his car and threatened to throw a brick through their window.’
Parking for coaches in the village has become more difficult after a privately owned area they had been allowed to use was withdrawn.
The parish council is now considering banning coaches from central parts of the village to try to ease traffic congestion.
MailOnline found issues with Internet signal for the local parking app and public toilets costing 40p per person.
By late morning, the village was rammed with people.
Bernie Roberts lives just yards from High Street but, like many other villagers, only goes there to buy a newspaper and rarely goes out on busy days.
Referring to the huge numbers of tourists who often visit the village, he said: ‘It has spoiled it. I’ve been here for the best part of 30 years. When I first started living here, there were proper shops. Now there aren’t.’
He complained about people breaking the 20mph speed limit outside his home, saying some drove down it ‘like lunatics’, adding that youngsters were having to leave the village because houses were being bought by outsiders wanting to rent them out.
He said: ‘It’s a b****y disaster. It has definitely spoiled the village.’
But local business owner Sarita Tapper, who runs the Chestnuts Fashion Fix shop, disagreed.
She said banning coaches from the centre could force her business to fold because so many people visit Bourton via organised coach trips. She said that while some days were very busy, others were very quiet.
She added: ‘On the really busy days, people get the wrong impression. Come during the winter, it’s a ghost town.’
Ice-cream seller and village resident Allan Hymers said: ‘I’ve been here all week and it’s been really quiet.
‘There are traffic situations but when it’s busy we can cope. We have to take it. It’s handleable. It’s always been busy on bank holidays.’
Marie and Andy Mallion, from Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, were not bothered by the crowds. The latter said: ‘It’s so lovely. We’ve been here at least six times.’
And Angela Condon, from Northampton, said: ‘It’s just a nice place to be. It has always been busy but I still enjoy coming.’
Crowds of tourists in the Cotswolds village of Bourton-On-The-Water on Saturday
Bourton-On-The-Water parish and district councillor Jon Wareing (pictured) says the small village is buckling under the weight of an ever increasing number of visitors
Bernie Roberts (pictured) lives just yards from the High Street in Bourton-On-The-Water but, like many other villagers, only goes there to buy a newspaper and rarely goes out on busy days
Cars are crowded in the parking lot as hundreds of tourists flock to Bourton-On-The-Water over the weekend
Long queues could be seen outside shops selling coffee and pastries in Bourton-On-The-Water over the weekend
Visitors take a dip in the River Windrush, which runs through the village of Bourton-On-The-Water
Whitby in North Yorkshire runs an annual goth convention and has been made famous by classic novels such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Danny Wilson, 55, who runs a Goth-themed fashion shop and lives locally, said he is being forced out of his own town: ‘I live in a rented flat and all the other flats in the building are holiday lets now.
‘They make a lot of noise. I cannot leave my bike outside my door. The fire alarm is going off all the time.
‘I am going to have to move. Most locals probably feel the same – it is not their town anymore – because it is busy in the winter now as well.
‘There used to be a few months a year that the locals would say ”We have got our town back” but they cannot say that any more.
‘Locals are sick of having nowhere to park and not having any local pubs. They feel pushed out, like in any tourism destination. Most town centres are closing down for business and make way for expensive houses for rich people to move in.
‘At least Whitby town centre is still a hub for people to go to – so that is a positive from tourism.’
Barry Snedden, 67, has been running pleasure boat trips around Whitby Harbour for 42 years, but is also feeling the downside of the tourism boom.
He said on busy days so many people visit Whitby many are forced to walk on the roads, and congestion is made worse by the need to raise and lower a local bridge to allow boats to pass.
He added: ‘Nobody gives a monkey about the parking. The police do not bother and the traffic wardens cannot be everywhere. Some people park all day on disabled badges and the disabled person is not even in the car.’
Mr Snedden, who has been a member of the local lifeboat crew since 1982, continued: ‘People do not check the tides and get cut off. We have had people scrambling up the cliffs and doing other silly things when they start panicking.
‘We have more litter bins out. But some visitors still leave the kids’ buckets and plastic fishing nets next to the bins at night so they blow into the harbour and fill it with plastic.
‘If the nylon lines get entangled in ships’ propellers they can rip the prop shafts apart and cause thousands of pounds worth of damage.’
He added: ‘The language on the street is terrible. I tell them there are kids and women around but they have often had a few beers and will get funny. There is no need for rudeness.
Sarita Tapper, who runs the Chestnuts Fashion Fix shop in Bourton-On-The-Water, said banning coaches from the centre could force her business to fold
A packed car park in Bourton-On-The-Water in Gloucestershire on Saturday
‘It is lovely place Whitby but no one seems to police anything and there are some things that need sorting out.’
Charlie and Julie Marsden, aged 69 and 62, are life long visitors to Whitby. Mr Marsden said: ‘We come here most weekends from Wakefield. We have a static caravan here and just love it.
‘It is so unspoiled – not commercialised like Scarborough is these days. Everything around here is brilliant – the walks, the Abbey.
‘But we do not bother with the car and walk everywhere while we are here. My sister lives in Whitby and is sick of people parking in front of her house to walk down into town. The congestion is terrible where she lives so we do sympathise.’
One of the rows over traffic congestion centred on motor bikers using the railway station car park. Rail bosses complained by visiting the adjoining Whistlestop Café the bikers were taking up too many car parking bays intended for rail users.
This resulted in a ban on motor bikers using the station car park last year. But this was overturned last year after 5,000 motorcyclists petitioned against the move.
Biker Steve Sirrell, 73, from Leeds, West Yorkshire, said: ‘We sit here and watch all the day trippers coming off the trains and buses.
‘A lot of places do not like bikers but no one in Whitby objected to us using the car park and the café would not survive without us.
‘Most of the bikers who come here tend to be older and never cause any trouble. But the ban might have had an impact because normally this car park would be full of motor bikes.
‘We feel we have won a victory – but we will see how long it lasts. It would be a shame if it didn’t because Whitby is a marvellous place. There is so much to see. The fish and chips are to die for everywhere you go – not to mention the kippers.’
Thomas O’Grady, 43, from Saltburn, took his three children George, eight, Fergus, four, and Dusty, six, down to the promenade while their mum settled into their new holiday cottage.
He said: ‘My wife grew up in this neck of the woods and loves it here. We have just bought a holiday cottage so we will be here even more. We love the ice cream.
‘All the kids think it is a magic place. We have just been to Pannett Park playground and they like it there too.’
Meanwhile full-time residents in the historic Devon fishing port of Salcombe say the seasonal influx of holiday home renters and day trippers delivers work, income and a tangible buzz of excitement on the narrow, winding streets.
Signs in Bourton-On-The-Water point tourists towards the village as the exit the parking lot
Parking for coaches in the village has become more difficult after a privately owned area they had been allowed to use was withdrawn
The pavements in Bourton-On-The-Water were bustling over the weekend due to the influx of tourists
Surrounded by stunning coves and beaches and glorious cliff walks, the South Hams town is a tourist magnet – sometimes to the dismay of locals, who say parking can get limited in high summer.
Retired builder Phil Martin, 78, said: ‘It’s a big problem. Holiday homes often have families or groups of friends arriving with two or three cars and nowhere to park them.
‘So they just dump them all over the place outside the homes of us locals. It’s the same with day trippers who are too mean to pay for park-and-ride.
‘I’ve challenged drivers in the past and get responses like ‘we’re going sailing’ as though that makes it ok.
‘Not all visitors are the same, I know. But this is one of the biggest causes of upset locally during the season.
‘Then there’s the habit of certain holiday home owners to register as businesses to avoid paying council tax.
‘Many full-time residents hold down two or three jobs to make ends meet so you can imagine how they feel. It doesn’t seem fair.’
The parking issue isn’t lost on Salcombe’s shop owners and traders. Sally Hannaford, 54, who manages The Pasty Shack on the waterfront, says it leads to increased traffic on streets already thronging with visitors.
‘People just keep driving round and round looking for parking,’ she said. ‘Then they’ll get frustrated, pull up anywhere and take the risk.
‘In high season we see loads of cars with parking tickets at the end of the day.’
Mother-of-two Sally, who was born and bred in Salcombe, says high housing costs driven by tourism make it difficult to find staff.
‘I’m lucky because I have two children who help me in summer,’ she said. ‘But there are shop owners who sell up because they can’t find any staff. And that’s because ordinary workers can’t afford to buy or even rent here.
‘In winter our resident population has now fallen below 2,000. I understand why so many people love Salcombe. It’s a beautiful place and it’s great that visitors come and enjoy it. But this brings pressures on the town.’
Across Fore Street at the Salcombe Yawl shop and cafe owner Anneli Daniel agrees that some ‘old school’ locals don’t like the holiday crowds and speak fondly about ‘the old days’.
‘But the way I see it,’ says Anneli, 53, ‘is that the visitors allow us to live and work here. Simply being in Salcombe is a wonderful thing.
Cars were lining the roads in Bourton-On-The-Water on the weekend as many flocked to the Cotswolds to enjoy the sunny weather
The parking lot was packed with cars on Saturday after hundreds drove out to Bourton-On-The-Water
Marie and Andy Mallion, from Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, were not bothered by the crowds. The latter said: ‘It’s so lovely. We’ve been here at least six times’
‘Yes, there are difficulties for those of us running businesses. We are under so many council restrictions and the streets get absolutely rammed with cars in summer once the car parks are full.
‘That causes everyone problems – especially the delivery drivers.’
However her colleague Katt Horton, 56, says recent summers have seen a drop-off in visitor numbers – the result she believes of the cost of living crisis.
‘It still gets very busy here,’ she said. ‘But it’s nothing like the scenes we saw in the weeks after the Covid crisis when everyone was allowed back out.’
Trina Haworth, 52, who works at Salcombe Sailing also cites parking problems as one of the town’s biggest bugbears.
‘Seeing the same cars driving past again and again looking for spaces – that’s obviously not good for anyone,’ she says.
‘Having said that I love the influx of people in summer. We need to accept that seasonal businesses survive on tourism. We can hardly complain about it.’
Over at the Jam Industries fashion store 19-year-old Mia Carey, who works weekends while studying for her geography degree at Bristol University, says she loves the town at its busiest.
‘I’ve seen it in winter when the streets are completely dead,’ she said. ‘When it’s busy it’s a great place. I have loads of friends here and the atmosphere is fantastic in summer.’
For some older residents though the sheer number of houses bought up as holiday rentals is a source of anger and frustration.
Figures from the Office of National Statistics earlier this year revealed that the South Hams has the highest number of holiday homes in England and Wales at 44.1 for every 1,000 domestic properties.
Trevor Becker, 66-year-old organist at Holy Trinity Church lived in Salcombe until he was 19, returning in 2008 to care for his elderly mother.
‘I grew up in a thriving community,’ he said. ‘Now it feels like a ghost town at times. Young families can’t afford to live here and there are so few shops that local people want to use because they are all geared to tourism.
‘Houses from the 1930s and 1960s are being demolished, along with their gardens, to make way for new holiday homes of questionable design which replace grass with tarmac or bricks.
‘The rainwater run-off must be horrendous and as a result we now get flooding in some of the lower streets in winter.’
One 82-year-old resident, who declined to be named, told Mail Online that locals increasingly rent out their homes in summer and move elsewhere, or go travelling, on the income generated.
‘They can’t bear the tourists though personally I’ve got used to them,’ he said.
‘In summer, Salcombe is full of young couples on holiday and pensioners on day trips. I call them the nearly-wed and the nearly-dead.’
William Turner is a seasoned U.K. correspondent with a deep understanding of domestic affairs. With a passion for British politics and culture, he provides insightful analysis and comprehensive coverage of events within the United Kingdom.
