Thanet council is warning visitors that four Thanet beaches are nearing capacity – and a fifth beach is extremely busy.
Margate Main Sands, Botany Bay, Joss Bay and Viking Bay are bursting at the seams with beach-goers and Ramsgate Main Sands is also becoming packed.
Thanet council warns that the high tide -due at Ramsgate by 3.20pm – will make social distancing extremely difficult and is appealing for people to consider alternative beaches and bays.
Kent Police has warned that officers will order people off Thanet beaches for 48 hours if they cause anti-social behaviour.
Groups were dispersed from Margate Main Sands yesterday (August 7) by police during an extraordinary busy day.
This information is in addition to earlier updates that capacity is being reached at #Botanybay #Vikingbay #Margate #Jossbay pic.twitter.com/jdFvjtaKxw
— Communications Team (@ThanetCouncil) August 8, 2020
Security staff are on duty across several beaches and bays to tackle anti-social behaviour and parking wardens are on duty throughout the day and into the evening to tackle illegal parking, especially at known hotspots
Coach full of people got off at knockholt road. Now coach stuck. No emergency services would be able to get through and the bus has stopped running this morning due to access from parking.
Mathew Perrin
It’s just comical really, it will be exactly the same next weekend, depending on weather.
TDC, are not capable of being able to look ahead and plan for these typical days.
Botany Road completely overrun again. The proposed Resident Parking scheme will not resolve the problem. Our visitors will happily pay their ridiculously cheap £35 fine and leave their London wagons blocking your drive the footpath and anywhere else they fell like. So,the only potential winner guess who… Thanet District Council who due to their weak enforcement policies. Thanks for nothing TDC.
One coach load… more like 5 I’ve seen. What the hell is going on? These are clearly planned trips by our ethnic communities from all parts of London. When are TDC going to protect their tax payers. These visitors come loaded with all they need and don’t bring anything to our economy but leave us with the cost of clearing up their mess they can’t be bothered to take with them. We must be the softest local authority in England. Its about time they grew a pair and give more support to the people who pay their wages. Fat chance.
You are quite right ‘Seen it all before’! These daytrippers bring nothing to Botany Bay except rubbish, noise,traffic gridlock and now, possibly more Covid19
Is the fact that the coaches are from London’s ethnic communities relevant to your story? Just curious
Oh No what’s going on??? We are a sea sand and beach area otherwise known as the seaside. Year after year we are told of the “Great days of the past when the beaches were……eh packed” Now because of the pandemic and virus restrictions on travel it’s boom time for the summer traders at the seaside, some residents seem to be amazed and disturbed that the very thing that attracted them to move to the area has also attracted families to visit.
Get over it, winter is not far away and you will be complaining you can’t move for the snow.
Typical non resident remark. There is no boom for so called local traders. They don’t spend any money. How many times do you have to be told. You’re living in a dream world Bill.
Bill, see how you feel when you can’t get out of your front drive to get to work because c**ts have parked over your drive way. Or the place you live in is being turned into a stinking trash pile of chaos and filth because these f***ers come down here with their selfishness and arrogance, parking their cars and dropping their shit where ever they like. As for local traders reaping the benefits, the needs of a handful don’t outweigh the f**cking inconvenience and cost to the locals when these arseholes flood the area and leave it in a mess. They buy from out if the area but make no effort to take their cr*p home with them. Some of our gardens have been used as toilets and locals have been spat at for asking people to get off their drives, you might be ok with that, the rest of us aren’t.
I didn’t realise the pandemic had been wiped out, and was all done, and finished. I have never, ever seen Margate beach, as busy as it was today.
Why do people automatically point the finger at TDC?
This is not a parking issue, it is a traffic issue and therefore comes within the remit of Highways at Kent County Council. Some of the problems could also be addressed by Kent Police. Its not always TDC who are to blame.
Very good to see people of all ages, families and children, all enjoying themselves on Westbrook beach. What a pity the council couldn’t licence someone to open the cafe there – I’m sure some would jump at the chance. Sad seeing it shuttered and closed when so many would like refreshments. That would aid the local economy in a small way.
I don’t think it’s the council’s fault that the cafe has no tenant at present.
Thanet is a funny little place ! Moan about the lack of visitors, moan about to many visitors, moan about the type of visitors. Does thanet want to be a seaside resort or not. I guess should manston reopen they wont be any visitors anyway, so why invest to much money into the tourism industry. Until we know just how much damage a cargo hub will do to the area. Perhaps people of thanet dont want a nice seaside tourist environment instead they want a dirty industry island ?
A little thing called a pandemic! In a normal situation visitors are welcome
Matt
Most of the moans are about the beach being packed, cars parked everywhere, litter being left, anti social behaviour. That is just a normal sunny weekend nothing to do with a pandemic ! 😉
Manston will bring flights and planes are getting quieter and more efficient and to see someone getting start on Ramsgate seafront development make me feel good our town is going somewhere. The images on the hoardings and the quality of the other projects they did in Broadstairs means despite all the negatives we have some real investment going into our area as the young people will be the biggest losers in this pandemic.
The rates we pay to live here is a joke I wonder would happen if several hundred people refused to pay until something was done about parking rubbish and abuses
They would be prosecuted and fined. And if they didn’t pay the fines, they could end up in prison.
Parking problems are not caused by the council: they are caused by selfish, entitled motorists who presume they have a right to park just wherever they want.
It’s always someone else’s fault.
Be part of the solution, not the problem.
We’vw just spent a lovely week in Sandwich and visited a lot of the beaches mentioned here. We spent a lot in local shops, pubs and restaurants and took all our ‘rubbish’ home. All the locals were lovely and helpful, the shop keepers very much so. We social distanced at the beaches, very easy to do and also when swimming in the sea – even at high tide in Ramsgate. Parking was great, cheap and accessible (we avoided Botany Bay because of the parking issues around there) Just wanted to put a post a positive view of the area, and that many visitors are like us, rather than the isolated horror stories.
I’m a Londoner and recently visited Deal and Sandwich and have been telling everyone what lovely places they are. I parked in proper car parks, I never leave even a scrap of litter and use local pubs and restaurants. Won’t bother again, we are obviously not welcome by people who think they own the beach because they live there ! Try dealing with the hoards of people who visit London !