Our seaside town has been ruined by holiday lets… it used to be idyllic & full of young families but now it’s depressing
FUMING residents say their idyllic seaside town has been ruined by “surreal” holiday lets – and that they’ve forced out young families.
Boasting stone cottages, cobbled streets and winding country lanes, Staithes is the northernmost village in Yorkshire.
The village has become a victim of its own success – with rich outsiders snapping up second homes and holiday lets.
Most young families in the area have moved out of the pretty village into newbuild estates on its outskirts.
Staithes has now lost both of its two Post Office branches, and the village school has been razed.
Mum-of-two Kerry Parkes told the Examiner: “There’s a lot of holiday lets, it is sad.
“The thing that is really sad is people who have got them as second homes, but they never ever come.
“They are left empty for the majority of the year, and they just go to wrack and ruin. That’s a shame.
“In winter, when you’re walking down, there’s not many lights on in the cottages and it is a bit surreal, really.”
Lifelong resident Vanessa Ditchburn, 53, said: “If people are just staying here on holiday, it’s not the same as people living here, is it?”
But not all villagers are downbeat about the influx of second home owners.
Pub chef Luke Gilmour, 42, said that tourists keep him in a job – and that Staithes is the “ideal holiday village”.
Fuming residents say their pretty town is also being ruined by tourists and second-home owners – but now they’re getting their revenge.