Heat and staycation tourists pile pressure on coastguards
BRITAIN’S coastguards had their busiest day for more than four years on Friday, as the UK recorded its third hottest day ever.
Britons abandoning summer holidays abroad have made beaches “unmanageable”, council bosses have warned. It came as a body was found after a 15-year-old boy went missing in a lake close to Lakeside Shopping Centre in Thurrock, Essex, yesterday, around the same time as a person was recovered from water near Porthcurno, in Cornwall.
The total number of incidents recorded by HM Coastguard on Friday was 329, including 232 call outs for rescue teams, 129 for lifeboats, 22 requiring aircraft and three for a hovercraft – with many calls about people being cut off by the tide, missing children and swimmers getting into difficulty.
Julie-Anne Wood, of HM Coastguard, said: “We completely understand that people want to enjoy the coast. We also know that even the most experienced swimmer, paddleboarder and walker can be caught out by currents and tides.
“We would really ask you to check and double check the tide times – put a timer warning on a smartphone to remind you – be aware of things like rip currents, and make sure you have a means of contacting us if things do go wrong.”
Thanet council said the area’s four beaches, which include Margate Sands, were struggling to cope with the influx of visitors. Cllr Rick Everitt, the leader of the council, said: “It’s an irony, isn’t it, that seaside towns have spent years complaining that people no longer visit them because they go abroad. We’re getting greater numbers than we’ve ever seen since package holidays became a thing.
“So it is a bit of a balancing act for us, because we don’t want to be saying ‘don’t come’, as we know small businesses around our seafront are desperate for the revenue.”
He added: “If you have too many people on the beach, it just becomes unmanageable from that point of view.”
Residents described some Cornish resorts as being “Benidorm on steroids”, with street marshals being recruited to give social distancing tips in some of the busiest hot spots.
Meanwhile, badly parked cars left by day trippers near the Peak District village of Cressbrook led to the 173 bus service being suspended.