“The queue stretched from the centre of the village right back to the turn off at East Guldeford and beyond,” said Gaz Jones, who runs Open Mouth Photography and contributes to Camber Community News.
He filmed cars arriving in Camber on Bank Holiday Monday 25 May at midday, many hours after the car parks had filled up. “It was car after car after car with nowhere to go. All the main car parks were full by 10am.”
He said it was understandable people made the trip to the beach, with some coming from as far as Harlow, Lowestoft and Milton Keynes. “It’s a perfect storm, isn’t it? A heatwave and a bank holiday so it was always going to happen. It’s been great to see businesses thriving but the crowds happen year after year with drives blocked, problems for the emergency services, carers unable to visit, and there’s never any hint of anything being done to send people elsewhere.”
At least two farmers opened up their fields as car parks. “It was very good to see. Good luck to them, ” said Gaz. “What we need is a proper park and ride service.”
The huge crowds at Camber led to delays travelling from Rye, with tailbacks to the town centre and journeys of over an hour. Stagecoach put on extra buses and a shuttle service to Camber, but at times had to divert the 100 route via Brenzett. Train services were disrupted across the bank holiday weekend because of problems between Hastings and Eastbourne.
As well as delays on the A259, the main road through Peasmarsh was closed after a serious accident. More details in this week’s News in Brief.
Image Credits: Gaz Jones .
What authorities? Complacent, inept, incompetent, you choose. They will wait until there is a serious life threatening incident, when emergency services cannot attend, before declaring ‘lessons will be learned’.
There is enough sand in Camber for them to bury their heads for many years. So don’t hold your breath for a quick solution.
As the rail user group for the Ashford – Hastings line, MarshLink Action Group has been monitoring the high levels of disruption to the train service over the bank holiday weekend and into the following week. MLAG has made representations about this situation to Southern, via our partner groups in the Hastings and Rother Rail Users Alliance.
Incidents such as these, and steps to mitigate them, will no doubt be discussed at the upcoming MLAG Public Meeting (19th June, 7 pm, Tudor Room, Mermaid Inn), where speakers from Southern and Network Rail will give presentations.
Stuart Harland
Press Officer, MLAG