Johnson sends out warning to seaside trippers

PRIME MINISTER Boris Johnson has warned people to behave responsibly when visiting seaside resorts as the hospitality and tourism sectors gear up to open again on Saturday.

Communities living and working in tourist hotspots are fearful that the easing of the coronavirus lockdown may cause visitors to arrive in their areas en masse.

Speaking in the House of Commons yesterday, Mr Johnson said the scenes in Bournemouth where sunseekers flocked to the beach last week were “completely unacceptable”.

During Prime Minister’s Questions, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: “The Prime Minister can’t just bat away the challenge. These are matters of life and death, other people’s livelihoods.

“An example of this, last week the Member for Hove (Peter Kyle) asked the Prime Minister how can seaside towns be expected to cope with likely influx of visitors to beaches and parks during the hot weather?

“The Prime Minister replied, show some guts. Two days later Bournemouth beach was closed with 500,000 visitors, a major incident was declared. Does the Prime Minister now regret being so flippant?”

Mr Johnson replied: “(It is) absolutely clear that as we go forward with our plan, our cautious plan for opening up the economy, it is very, very important that people who do represent seaside communities, places where UK tourists will want to go, should be as welcoming as they can possibly be.”

He added: “But it is also vital that people have to behave responsibly and that is why the scenes in Bournemouth were completely unacceptable and that is why we stick to the advice that we have given.”

Some of Yorkshire’s prime tourism destinations have continued to attract visitors even

while full lockdown measures have been in place.

There has been evidence of second home owners travelling to Scarborough before an initial easing of lockdown measures in May, while Malham in the Yorkshire Dales has seen visitors from as far afield as Essex.

Latest figures have shown that North Yorkshire Police has issued the most fines so far (1,122), followed by the Metropolitan Police (1,072) and Devon and Cornwall (978) compared to just 42 in Staffordshire and 58 in Warwickshire.

Sir Keir said tracking the virus is a “concern” following a nationwide lifting of lockdown restrictions this weekend due to a lack of an app, no clear data for local authorities or “the world-beating system we were promised”.

He added: “I support the easing of restrictions but unlike the Prime Minister, I’m not blind to the risks and I don’t think anybody else should be.”

Mr Johnson was adamant the track and trace operation is reaching “huge numbers of people”, and the system has now reached 113,000 contacts.