Norfolk’s large coastal towns have remained quiet on the hottest day of the year to date, while reports suggest smaller villages and beaches have been inundated with visitors.
The streets of Great Yarmouth and Cromer were almost deserted on Wednesday as temperatures hit the mid twenties, but elsewhere beaches at Sea Palling and Horsey saw large numbers of visitors, with day trippers parking on roads and scenes resembling a bank holiday.
Andy Hanson, manager of Wyndham Holiday Park in East Runton which is currently closed because of coronavirus, said Cromer was very quiet: “Cromer is dead, there’s nobody here that shouldn’t be here.”
Mr Hanson, who has been keeping holiday home owners who are unable to visit their properties during lockdown updated on social media said he was surprised not more of the town’s residents were making use of the beach.
“There’s not a person on the beach either, there’s nobody on the beach at East Runton. I’m amazed at how quiet it is,” he said.
Pictures from Great Yarmouth showed similar scenes, with only one or two people milling around the Market Place and Regent Road and the Golden Mile all but deserted.
READ MORE: ‘Our village is not a tourist attraction’ - Anger over number of day trippersHowever, in Horsey, David Vyse, a volunteer for Friends of Horsey Seals, which were called to the beach to assist an injured animal, said the number of cars in the beach car park resembled a bank holiday.
He said: “We came through Sea Palling and Horsey car park is full up, it’s like a bank holiday, and people are parking on the roads.”
On Wednesday, North Norfolk District Council, announced it would be reopening nine of its 39 public toilets from Friday, May 22, but that its message to visitors was still ‘stay away’.
READ MORE: How has the coronavirus outbreak affected you?Kay Colby, from Sea Palling, said: “Looking at Sea Palling today I would think that half of Norfolk are blatantly ignoring this [stay away] message and treating it as an early bank holiday.
“I’ve watched people so eager to get to the beach they are hitting parked cars trying to squeeze in gaps obviously not big enough to get into, family units of five adults and associated children,” she said.
Despite being quiet in the morning, Hunstanton swelled with visitors towards the end of the day until the tide came in to drive people off the beach.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here