Our quaint seaside village is a magnet for celebs – but we won’t let it become a party town for rich kids
NEIGHBOURS in a seaside village popular with celebs have vowed to stop rich kids bringing bedlam to their beaches each summer.
Folk in Polzeath, Cornwall, fear their fate will be sealed by mobs of drunk poshos having underage-sex and smashing prosecco bottles against the cliffs amid a spike in shocking behaviour in recent weeks.
And locals are pointing the finger firmly at private school kids, who broke up for the summer holidays two weeks earlier than state schools.
One resident erupted, telling CornwallLive: “I’ve seen these kids get dropped off at mummy and daddy’s second home with a credit card and a bag of booze. Happy days.
“But expensive education doesn’t seem to translate in good behaviour – at least for a minority of them. It’s like they go feral.
“I think it’s the attitude of the parents that’s to blame.”
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Shocking recent incidents have also seen vital lifeguard equipment stolen or damaged.
The life-threatening vandalism saw a dispersal order slapped on groups for 48 hours and the police were involved.
Lighting fires with uprooted trees, benches and bits of stolen fences from local homes are amongst other nuisance activity to blight Polzeath since holidaymakers arrived this month.
Worry amongst residents stems from the reputational damage tearaway toffs wreaked on nearby Newquay, with the town struggling to shake its party image for decades.
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Polzeath has attracted punters with heavier wallets in recent years – with the landscape turning from a patchwork of humble cottages to monster glass and iron second homes.
This has come alongside a surge in celebrity holidaymakers like chef Gordon Ramsay and Harry Potter actress Helena Bonham Carter descending on the area to snap up properties.
But residents say they want the right kind of tourists to power the local economy and keep people in jobs.
And they are determined not to let a troublesome minority ruin it for them and other visitors.
Andy, a former Devon and Cornwall Police officer, said: “Polzeath is 99.5 per cent awesome.
“We just don’t want the 0.5 per cent to spoil it all for everyone else.”
Kerensa Beer-Robson – who owns the Beach Box café in the area – added: “We love visitors and we need them.
“We have no issue with tourists as we rely on them.
“The more the merrier. But it’s the tiny minority who are wrecking it for everyone else that we have issues with.
“We are trying to get through to them and get the message out.
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“Police have upped the ante too and anti-social behaviour will not be tolerated.
“It’s not a ‘them and us’ thing. We rely on tourism but we want the beach to be enjoyable by everyone.”