Don’t risk our lives; why second home owners are not welcome here – GP Taylor

While hundreds of people are dying, the stay at home advice is thrown aside and replaced with stay alert.

Yes Boris, we will stay alert to the fact that whatever you say about this pandemic is usually wrong and now is the time to sack your advisors and start again.

Britain was told that on May 13 people could travel to the countryside and exercise as much as they wanted. That was probably one of the most stupid things ever to come out of a politician’s mouth.

In the seaside town where I live, it meant one thing – even if the official rules still state visits to second homes aren’t allowed, the usual fat-cat, four-by-fours of second home owners were lining up to park in our streets by mid-morning. Suitcases were being unpacked and doors unlocked. Quarantine was over and bored of living in West Yorkshire and Teesside, these ‘‘cov-idiots’’ were back.

In any quaint seaside resort, there is always tension between locals and second home owners. I find that they have little regard for the local community and its ways. When challenged, their answer is usually that without them and their money, the locals would suffer. Turning up in droves in the middle of the night, during a pandemic, just shows the depth of their arrogance.

The reality of their buying flats and cottages in coastal towns is that they push up prices of property to the point that locals cannot afford to live there any more. In winter, they leave the coastal villages empty and without life. One only has to take a walk around Robin Hood’s Bay on a February afternoon to see that. These privileged purchasers rob the coast of its communities and treat it as a theme park for their selfish enjoyment. It is no surprise that they are causing a growing conflict with locals fed up with their antics.

I have been told that residents where I live have started to put ‘‘Go Home’’ notices on doors and cars of people coming to Whitby in breach of lockdown rules. They are even challenging them in the street and demanding they go home. MP Tim Farron warned that second home owners in the Lakes are applying for £10,000 small business grants, having declared their properties as holiday lets to avoid council tax. How dare they exploit a loophole and benefit from taxpayers money at a time of crisis for the NHS?

These are dangerous times and hundreds of people are still dying every day from this unseen killer. When people travel to the coast there is every chance they could take this plague with them.

It is the height of selfishness to leave their homes and drive to a tourist hotspot. Do they not think of the consequences of their irresponsible actions? Locals have every right to be angry. It is a matter of life and death.

An app developed at King’s College London tracked self-reported Covid-19 symptoms across the UK. It reported second-home hotspots had higher incidences of the virus than surrounding areas, giving concern that second-home owners coming to stay could be spreading it.

Not only that, but some second home owners are still letting out their cottages to tourists. A number of cottages have had regular visitors. The tell-tale sign of people dragging cases along Church Street at 3pm on a Friday gives it away. How can people be so greedy to encourage others to come on holiday?

It beggars belief, but then again, when you have a Government giving out vague advice and the police unable to do anything, it is no wonder. When Boris said that restrictions would be eased, it was, in reality, the end of lockdown. People took to the streets and traffic increased. The steady and growing stream of people passing by my window tells me that. Lockdown was something that I believe only 50 per cent of the population took seriously. The rest thought it was life as usual.

Even if that meant travelling to Whitby from Boston Spa to get some fish and chips, or like one couple who got caught by police, going to Whitby to smell the sea.

Something needs to be done. Sadly, we cannot trust a Government obsessed with getting schools open when everyone knows that schools cannot contain an outbreak of headlice, let alone a virus that kills. With the infection rate in Yorkshire higher than many places in the country, now is not the time to see visitors return. Second home owners should think deeply before setting off on their very unessential journeys.

GP Taylor is a writer and broadcaster from Whitby.

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