THE MOST expensive seaside town in Britain has been abandoned by tourists with the implementation of an outrageous new parking fee.
It means visitors have to pay a daily parking price of £10.
The coastal town of Salcombe in Devon has had a new parking charge of £10 introduced for day-trippers.
Locals also are required to pay £8 per day for parking, if they have the annual £5 permit.
This has triggered outrage, a notable drop in visitors according to residents.
One local business owner, Beck Gordon who owns a cafe and fishmonger’s, said: “In terms of day-trippers, if you talk about more local people, they definitely don’t come any more.”
Beck added: “It’s quieter generally.
“The parking’s definitely an issue.”
She pointed to the “absolutely ridiculous” fact that it is cheaper to get a weekly parking ticket that costs £25 or £50 than pay the car park fees, which would add up to £70.
Another cafe manager in the area revealed spending £120 of her earnings just on parking.
Salcombe was recently dubbed the most expensive seaside town in the UK, with average house prices of around £1.2 million in 2022.
Lloyds , however, revealed they did tumble by 22 per cent in the Devon hotspot to £970,657 in 2022.
It is known for its high concentration of second homes, which constitute 60 per cent of its housing stock, which are being hit by double council tax.
Despite having some of the UK’s best seafood , and being a small fishing village, it receives hardly any tourists anymore.
Councillor Julian Brazil, who is in charge of community services at the local council, stated: “We’d like to do everything to help the tourism trade and we have kept our car parking charges as competitive as possible.
“Residents of the South Hams can benefit from our discounted resident parking scheme.”
“Many workers in Salcombe have benefited from our competitive parking permits, which offer significantly lower long-term parking compared to our pay-on-the-day rates.”
He added: “Be under no illusion, we don’t want to increase prices, but this is the best choice for us under the circumstances we find ourselves in.”
According to Brazil, the prices have been frozen for four years, and visitors are just being asked to contribute to public services.
Anti-tourist measures have been seen to be sweeping hotspots across the UK and Europe.
Officials have attempted to reduce the impact of holidaymakers by implementing additional taxes on tourists , or banning new hotels .
Earlier in the year, the Greater Manchester Mayor suggested that an existing optional fee in some Manchester city centre hotels should be replaced with a compulsory charge for visitors.
