A beach once dubbed the UK’s “best” has turned into a rat-infested rubbish dump with nobody wanting to visit – and it has been dubbed an “absolute hole”.
Newquay beach was once a jewel in the crown of the country’s stay-at-home tourism industry. But it is now a shell of its former self after it become a hotspot for rats, rubbish and raving.
The issue stems from a local council decision to change bin collections from weekly to fortnightly, with one resident telling The Sun that the choice made by Cornwall Council was the “worst” thing to ever happen to the area.
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(Image: Alamy Stock Photo)
Valerie Robertson said: “It’s got so much worse since they changed the rules, we are constantly getting dead rats. We try to keep it as tidy as we can, but seagulls get in and there’s rubbish all up the street. We call our street bin alley now. It stinks and it’s horrible. I go the long way around to avoid passing the bins at the end of our street.
“With the summer coming it’s going to get worse, it’s an absolute joke. There’s constantly rubbish on the street so things blow into my house if I don’t keep the door shut.”
Others have also claimed that they have been forced to put padlocks on their bins to stop the ravenous rats, while a lively nightlife scene has seen rubbish strewn throughout the area with nobody around to collect it. And the chaos has been reflected in recent reviews on TripAdvisor, with one dubbing it an “absolute hole”, while another said they wouldn’t return unless the “town is tidied up greatly”.
(Image: Alamy Stock Photo)
They wrote: ”There are awful Derelict properties, dog excrement everywhere. Beggars in door way. Graffiti everywhere. Such a shame most of the Hotels do not look very appealing to stay in. Cannot really understand why the local council have have let the town get into an unsightly place to visit.”
And a second commented: “Newquay, wow, what an absolute hole of a place. Full of druggies, dropouts and the great unwashed. People smoking weed in broad daylight on the beach in front of their own children.”
Not everyone sees the downside, however, with one recent review claiming that parts of the beach is actually home to “excellent views” and “clear waters”, as well as being somewhere to spend “a lot of time walking”.
A Cornwall Council spokesman said: ““Most local authorities collect rubbish fortnightly, and we anticipate that residents will soon adjust to the new service. Limiting the amount of rubbish we collect to what fits in your wheelie bin or sack encourages everyone to recycle.
“It is a legal requirement for local authorities to collect food waste separately from rubbish. Help and advice on how to recycle and what goes in your new food waste bin can be found on the Cornwall Council website.”
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