Holidaymakers in Kent have been asked to avoid four of the county’s beaches after fears some have become “unmanageable” due to the number of visitors.
The coastguard had its busiest day in more than four years on Friday – when the UK recorded its third hottest day on record – dealing with 329 incidents. Concern has been expressed that there may not enough lifeguards at some beaches as crowds swell.
Thanet district council asked people to avoid four of the area’s beaches, including Margate Main Sands, because they had become too crowded. The council had already issued a “stay away” warning for three beaches around Broadstairs – Joss Bay, Botany Bay and Viking Bay – on Friday.
The council leader, Rick Everitt, said the RNLI only had a certain capacity and that “exceptional” numbers of people – he claimed the most since the advent of foreign package holidays – were visiting Thanet’s beaches
Early on, it became clear that they were going to reach levels of which we were concerned about,” he said. Lifeguards are “on seven Thanet beaches this summer, which is slightly fewer than usual, and they’re doing a great job where they are but they don’t have unlimited resources to deal with people in the water.
“If you have too many people on the beach, it just becomes unmanageable from that point of view.”
He added: “We’re happy for people to come to Thanet, our economy is dependent on it, and obviously a lot of businesses in the coastal areas are struggling, because they missed so much of the season.
“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 said the facilities on the beaches, such as toilets, were not sufficient for the number of tourists, while authorities would be able to cope better if demand were better distributed along the coastline.
“It’s an irony isn’t it, that seaside towns have spent years complaining that people no longer visit them because they go abroad,” he added. “We’re getting greater numbers than we’ve ever seen since package holidays became a thing.”