PEOPLE living in a picturesque British seaside town fear they are being forced out by an influx of second home-owners.
Residents say they are being priced out of Devon resort Sidmouth, which has topped polls rating the UK‘s prettiest destinations.
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Nikki Morgan, who lives in Sidmouth and works in the town’s Old Sweet Shop, raised concerns about a shortage of affordable homes for locals as opposed to out-of-towners swooping in.
She told DevonLive: “In the last year I have only seen four properties in Sidmouth come up for rent, which is not great.
“Once you come here they don’t leave, which is lovely, but we have a lot of people who work here who can’t afford to live here which I think is a real shame.
“You get all these holiday homes in Devon, we get all these holiday homes, and they are all very welcome.
“We rely on them for an income and they keep the county going – but it’s a difficult one because there’s nowhere for the locals to live.”
She also praised the town’s “wonderful” community, as well as the resort’s “lovely stones and the lovely buildings”.
Yet she cautioned: “If there was a problem in Sidmouth – if you can call it that – like with most of Devon, it would be affordable housing and potholes.”
And Sidmouth’s lifeboat station operations manager Phil Shepperd said: “It’s very much a tourist destination and it gets very busy through the summer.”
But he did describe it as “a vibrant town”, insisting: “It’s great living by the sea.”
The town offers a much-admired coastline, rugged cliffs and expansive sea views.
It also stages an annual Sidmouth Folk Festival, attracting performers such as Ralph McTell, Eddi Reader and Fairport Convention.
Regular visitors have included The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings author JRR Tolkien and poet Sir John Betjeman, while Sidmouth has also featured in stories by the writers Beatrix Potter and Thomas Hardy.
Complaints about tourists and second home-buyers have just been made by people in Bamburgh, on the Northumberland coast.
Other seaside resorts where long-standing residents fear being pushed out by new arrivals include Newquay, Falmouth and Padstow in Cornwall and Newport in Pembrokeshire, Wales.
Similar concerns have also been raised in Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk, Robin Hood’s Bay in North Yorkshire and The Witterings in West Sussex.
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