GP Taylor: Tourist and staycation hotspots in Yorkshire must not ignore their residents

Every Friday afternoon, one by one the car parks fill up with shiny white camper vans. On some weekends, there are no spaces for cars, as the deckchairs are spread out and awnings extended.

Looking down from the river bridge the scene below is like that of an American trailer park. Calor gas heaters puff away and washing-up water drains on to the Tarmac, and as long as you pay your daily parking charge, it is all perfectly legal. Rules are ignored, Parking overnight is free. It is also an eyesore.

This scene is being lived out in car parks throughout the county. I spoke to one geriatric traveller who had made his way up the east coast, staying every night for free.

Good sites are spread by
word of mouth and the internet. Many, like the man I spoke to, have long holidays and weekend breaks on the cheap, and local camp sites miss out on valuable income. It also impacts the lives of local people. Full car parks and choked-up roads all add to the stress of living in a holiday destination.

In Grassington on a sunny summer’s afternoon last year, I heard a motorist haranguing a local who had asked him to move his badly-parked car. His reply was that the village needed his money to stay alive and as a tourist he would park where he wanted.

This is the dilemma we face in Yorkshire. How do we balance the needs of tourists with those of locals? As we come up to what may be a booming holiday season, it is on the minds of many people.

We do need tourist money, but do we need the aggravation, congestion and the disruption that goes with it? The tourism industry brings £8bn to Yorkshire’s economy, with visitor spend in Scarborough being £303m. With a weak pound, ‘staycations’ will be the in-thing this summer.

At the last Bank Holiday weekend in Whitby, it was strange to see several of my neighbours carting in bags of shopping into their houses on the Thursday afternoon as if
they were about to be under siege.

Cars were locked and would not be moved until the Tuesday morning. I didn’t heed their advice, I lost my space and 
ended up parked on the other side of town. I pay for a parking permit for my street, but can count on one hand the times I have actually been able to park there.

It’s not just parking. Housing is also a pressing issue in tourist hotspots. Is it right that a young couple cannot afford to live
in the town they were brought
up in because holiday cottage owners have pushed up the
price of property? Absentee landlords make many of our quaint villages into winter ghost towns. Just take a walk down to the harbour at Staithes on a wet Wednesday in November to see how few people actually live there.

It really is time that our elected representatives started to focus on the lives and well-being of local residents rather than the needs of tourists. We have cried out for the A64 to be turned into a dual carriageway and have been ignored. We ask to be allowed to park in council car parks at a resident’s rate and they laugh in our faces. We complain about the increase in council tax, while many holiday cottage owners claim small business exemption, and they just shrug their shoulders. What do the residents of Yorkshire have to do to be heard?

It is perfectly feasible to have an order that enforces all camper van owners to pay £10 per night to sleep in a council car park, like that imposed by Craven Council. Cheaper than a B&B and with a good view thrown in.

Holiday home owners should be made to pay full council tax and a 10 per cent premium of their gross lettings per year. This money could be used to go towards providing subsidised housing for local people. No further housing should be allowed to be turned into holiday accommodation.

A local housing stock has to be kept available for resident homes. Residents across Yorkshire should be allowed to park in council car parks for a fixed fee of £2 per day.

With the rise in staycations, the needs of local people who live in some of the most visited areas of the county have to be taken seriously. Their quality of life has to be considered and not taken for granted.

GP Taylor is an author and writer from North Yorkshire.