Kentish Express Ashford & District
High tempers and temperatures as thousands flock to Kent’s beaches
Soaring temperatures saw hundreds flock to the Kent coast this bank holiday - leaving many people fuming over what they left behind.
While many were keen to enjoy the beautiful weather and recently relaxed lockdown rules on the county’s beaches, residents were disgusted to find litter and human excrement blighting popular beauty spots.
Kent MP Rosie Duffield was among those to remind beachgoers of the “real threat” still posed by the coronavirus.
Taking to Twitter on Bank Holiday Monday, the Labour member for Canterbury wrote: “Please remember, social distancing rules are still very much in place, very difficult on some of our narrow pavements and walkways in Whitstable but vitally important as Covid-19 is still a serious and real threat.”
Many families carefully adhered to social distancing measures - spacing out at sensible intervals. But as the mercury rose, so did the number of people congregating on the shoreline.
By early afternoon on Monday, beaches such as those in Thanet and Whitstable were “heaving” with people.
In busy Viking Bay in Broadstairs, families watched in horror as a shocking brawl broke out. Footage taken just after 4pm on Monday shows young men and women gathering in a group before punches are thrown.
The person recording the two-minute video can be heard to say “Oh my God” in disbelief as the violence escalated.
A man lying on the sand appears to have been hurt in the disgraceful melee.
Police attended the scene and spoke to a number of people, while one person was treated by paramedics.
After crowds died down, residents were horrified to find “human faecal matter, urine and rubbish” strewn across beaches.
Some public loos were reopened in time for the bank holiday in an effort to help keep coastal areas clean.
Thanet district councillor Steve Albon said last week: “At the beaches where there aren’t any open toilets, using the surrounding area is totally unacceptable.”
But despite this, Peter Deacon, volunteer at Friends of Botany
Bay and Kingsgate group, said “scores of patches” of excrement and detritus were left along the beaches, under cliffs and in caves around Broadstairs.
“There was rubbish, faeces-smeared tissues covered by thin layer of sand, urine,” he said, adding that he and other volunteers have since been out picking up faeces and hosing down garden walls against which people urinated.
Desperate drivers were also spotted parking haphazardly along streets that run near beaches. Emma Wallace, of Knockholt Road in Thanet, shared photos of people parking on a junction near her home, adding: “Let’s hope emergency services won’t need to get down the road.”
But others took to social media to defend the crowds, arguing that many were doing their best to stay safe while they enjoyed being by the sea.
Andy Davidson tweeted from Whitstable beach: “There are people here from London but it is not heaving and everyone seems to be being sensible and staying in twos or small family groups well away from each other. Let’s not carried away with decrying everyone.”