My dream move to the seaside’s a nightmare – it’s a filthy cesspit, the beach’s a bin & I’m side-stepping vomit
STROLLING along Brighton’s promenade on a Sunday morning, Kate Thomas draws in a deep breath.
But it’s not to enjoy the fresh smell of sea air — rather to avoid the sickening stench of vomit from the night before that wafts from streets and pavements.
Having moved to the East Sussex holiday hotspot just one year ago with dreams of a quieter life, Kate, 40, now dodges some areas after dark during the peak summer season.
The actress grew up in Basildon, Essex, before moving to east London at the age of 19.
She was one of 23,000 Brits to relocate to Brighton in 2022, in the hope of finding a peaceful retreat from inner-city living.
A recent report found that more than half of the nation would love to up sticks and start a new life on the coast.
In fact, some 37 per cent have active plans to flit to a waterside location, according to the study by estate agent Strutt & Parker.
Kate says: “I got to a certain age and I really wanted to find somewhere to settle as my forever home and live a quieter existence.
“I’d always loved Brighton and it seemed like the ideal place to do exactly that.”
Kate says that she’s made great friends and has a lot of respect for the locals and business owners.
And she insists that, out of season, Brighton is an idyllic place to be.
But, between the months of April and October, she revealed some parts can become a cesspit of unsavoury daytrippers.
She admits: “Now that I’m no longer a visitor myself, I see them with completely different eyes.
“Some daytrippers seem to have no respect for the fact that this is someone’s home. They just see it as a party town.
“There are areas of the city I avoid entirely because I know that they’re a hotbed for hen and stag dos.
“West Street, one of the main shopping streets, is lined with tipsy groups tottering about in heels while local businesses tout for custom outside bars.
“It’s more like the Magaluf strip than an historical seaside town.”
She adds: “The pier is a no-go zone for the entire summer season, as it is packed with holidaymakers.
“There’s barely room to move. As soon as they’ve had a few drinks, they become rowdy and sometimes violent.
“With 700 pubs in the area, it’s not difficult to get lairy.
“Just a few weeks ago I saw an inebriated daytripper punch an innocent cyclist for getting in his way.
“All the residents are as horrified as me, but they have been here for years so knew to avoid these areas long before I did.
“You won’t find a Brighton local using the penny machines in the arcade let’s face it.”
But daytrippers aren’t wholly responsible for making locals’ lives a misery.
Tourists who book out one of the area’s 2,000 holiday lets also play their part.
Kate, who lives alone in the trendy Kemp Town area of the city, says that Airbnb guests are an increasing problem during the summer months.
Houses typically sell for an average of £500,000 compared to Brighton’s most expensive property at £2.5million on Western Esplanade known as Millionaire’s Row.
She says: “For residents, the growing number of Airbnbs is a huge problem.
“For much of the year, the properties surrounding them might be totally empty.
“But then for weeks at a time they will be packed out with party-goers playing music for the entire night.
“I knew a group who did the same and I hated being associated with the tourist crowd, something that fellow residents agree on.
“They were up into the early hours playing music in a residential area and received tons of complaints.
“And they were banned from booking the place again.
“That’s all well and good, but when people know they aren’t coming back they have no respect whatsoever.
“For them, it’s a home for one night, whereas for us we have to live with this behaviour for the entire season.”
Even when visitors are gone, the trail of destruction left behind makes locals furious.
In 2021, street-cleaning staff cleared no less than 100 tons of rubbish from the beaches of Brighton and neighbouring Hove in just 17 days — the equivalent of 100,000 1kg bags of sugar.
In a bid to discourage louts, the council installed 300 extra bins across the seafront last summer.
But Kate says it hasn’t done much to combat the problem.
She says: “There are people who just treat our city like a bin. The amount of rubbish that is left on the beach is absolutely appalling.
“Families will just up and go, leaving behind disposable barbecues, empty drink bottles and even discarded tents and picnic rugs.
“It’s just so far from what Brighton as a city represents.
“We’re known for being incredibly green and eco-friendly, and the piles of rubbish I am met with every weekend are doing nothing to save the planet.
“I love my city and I have no regrets about moving here, but you won’t catch me on the seafront until pumpkins are on supermarket shelves.
“Having said that, there is not one part of me that would give up my seaside home.
“The locals are some of the friendliest people and the rich, bohemian community means I rarely want to leave the city, even if I do only stick to certain spots.”