Angry locals at Dorset coastal beauty spot erect sign demanding tourists ‘go home’ after second home owners flock to rural areas during coronavirus lockdown to self isolate

• Residents in Lulworth, Dorset have erected a sign telling visitors to ‘go home’
• Villages across Britain have lashed out at those fleeing cities for the countryside
• Signs saying hostile messages like ‘Go home, rats’ have sprung up across Britain
• Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?

Angry locals at a Dorset coastal beauty spot have joined a growing list of Britons hitting out at tourists and second home owners flocking to their area amid the coronavirus crisis. 

Residents in Lulworth, Dorset – which was packed with visitors last weekend – have erected a sign telling visitors to ‘go home’. 

Towns and villages across the country have lashed out at those in cities fleeing the spread of coronavirus – which has now infected more than 9,500 people and killed 465.

Signs saying hostile messages like ‘Go home, rats’, ‘Tourists please go home’ and ‘locals only’ have sprung up across Britain. 

The Lulworth Estate, which owns the land, has announced it would be closing its car parks at Lulworth and Durdle Door following public criticism.

Residents in Lulworth, Dorset – which was packed with visitors last weekend – have erected a sign telling visitors to ‘go home’ 

The car park a Lulworth Cove in Dorset was nearly full over weekend. Signs saying hostile messages like ‘Go home, rats’, ‘Tourists please go home’ and ‘locals only’ have sprung up across Britain

One resident, who did not want to be named, said: ‘I’ve seen a picture of the sign and completely agree with what it says.

‘People coming down here to self-isolate and potentially bring the virus with them are as selfish as it comes.

‘We’re all on lockdown and they’re coming down here for a jolly-up.

‘I don’t think it’s right and I hope they listen to the sign and go home.’

Vikki Slade, leader of nearby Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council said: ‘We obviously welcome the decision to close the car parks to keep people safe.

The Lulworth Estate, which owns the land, has announced it would be closing its car parks at Lulworth and Durdle Door following public criticism 

The car park at the tourist hotspot at Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door have been closed to prevent people from visiting during the coronavirus lockdown

‘People coming down here to second homes is creating a huge strain on our public services and I completely understand people’s frustrations.

‘I would say that people who can go home should do so and people thinking about coming down should stay away.

‘The advice is for one piece of exercise a day but you shouldn’t be going to your parks or beaches unless they are local and you have no other choice.

‘This is for people’s safety – it is not a bank holiday.’

People living in big cities all over the UK have been flocking to the seaside to escape the virus, drawing the ire of locals.

Angry locals in St Ives in Cornwall scrawl messages on the beach as second home owners continue to flee London and other big cities

This sign, put up by local residents, has appeared in Bala, north Wales, and it reads ‘Go home rats’

Though second homers are remaining defiant, local anger towards the mass exodus is clear

Residents in St Ives, Cornwall have scrawled messages on the beach demanding second home owners leave.

An even more furious sign has appeared in Bala, north Wales, which says ‘Go home rats’.

The Government has urged people not to head to the countryside or to holiday homes, with fears that they could be spreading the virus throughout the nation.

But despite their pleas – and the Prime Minister imposing a UK-wide lockdown – second homers have been defiantly continuing to flock to the countryside in their droves.  

Residents of St Ives in Cornwall scrawled a series of messages into the sand on the beach demanding that tourists go home. 

Two messages read ‘Locals only’, while another said ‘Tourists please go home’. 

A frustrated farmer in Pendle, Lancashire took lockdown into his own hands and ‘closed the countryside’ by plastering his land with placards ordering ‘non-locals go home’, after ‘thousands’ flocked to the area amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Reid Nutter, 53, whose family own a farm in Roughlee spent the weekend erecting placards as tourists flouted social distancing rules.

The government have urged people not to head to the countryside, with fears that they could be spreading the virus throughout the nation

Farmer Reid Nutter, 53, from Roughlee, Lancashire, built a sign reading ‘countryside is closed’ after ‘thousands’ of visitors flocked to his village and flouted social distancing rules 

After Boris Johnson announced parks would close, Reid decided to ‘close the countryside’ to the public too.

By the time the Prime Minister announced lock down, the farmer was already working on six more signs in a bid to halt the spread of the virus and protect elderly locals.

The father-of-three proudly showed off his handy-work to daughter Brooke Nutter, 21, who chuckled at his ‘extreme’ action, but shared the pictures online to spread his message. 

In Bala, second home owners were compared to rats in one sign while another message, scrawled on the side of a car, read ‘Go home idiots’.

Signs also appeared on a roundabout in Porthcawl, south Wales asking people to turn around.

Meanwhile, a roadside sign in Pembrokeshire also urged non-locals to go home, while a sign in north Wales said: ‘Snowdonia is closed. F*** off home!’

However, second home owners are remaining defiant in the face of intense criticism. 

One of those is Alice Townsend, 52, a physiotherapist who moved to her second home in Northumberland from south London with her husband and three children. 

A car with a warning scrawled across its side has been dragged across the entrance to a car park at Bala, Wales

This angry sign in north Wales reads: ‘Snowdonia is closed. F*** off home!’, as locals hit out at tourists

Countryside dwellers are blasting city residents who are fleeing places like London for idyllic retreats (pictured, one person erected a sign on a roadside near Pembrokeshire) 

She told the Times: ‘We are in the middle of nowhere here. We thought with three children and two dogs it made sense. We can be outside and not infect anyone else.  

‘I get that some people might see that as selfish but we thought it was practical.’ 

A second homeowner, from west London, decided to move to her Suffolk cottage with her husband as soon as rumours of a lockdown first started.  

She insisted that her and her husband haven’t heard any backclash, despite the fury on social media. 

The woman, who wanted to remain anonymous, added: ‘We weekenders are quietly having our own backlash. Like the rest of the country, we are tired of being fed ambiguous advice that changes day by day, and most of all we resent being told we should not go to our own homes, where we pay our council tax, like every other resident.’

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