Motorhome and campervan owners have been warned they face new parking restrictions in a popular area of North East England, following a surge in anti-social behaviour at the site which has forced a local authority to act.
South Gare, a small man-made harbour in Middlesbrough, has seen an overwhelming number of vehicles enter the area during the summer months with many leaving rubbish behind and damaging the crucial space.
In a bid to protect the iconic location, PD Ports, which operates in the peninsula, has installed new height restriction barriers on South Gare Road to prohibit larger vehicles from entering.
The restrictions come after numerous campervans and motorhomes parked in the area for extended periods which has led to significant issues at the site, with visitors leaving behind waste causing residents and licence holders to complain.
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Frans Calje, PD Ports chief executive officer, said: "The South Gare is a local landmark and a place of outstanding natural beauty and wildlife.
"Unfortunately, the site has become a free-for-all for those who mistakenly believe a number of wild camping apps and social media groups that it is a suitable place to camp.
"We've received a number of complaints from local residents and licenced tenants of the various facilities on the gare about anti-social behaviour and inconsiderate parking - after monitoring the situation it has become clear that it is not sustainable."
CCTV cameras have been put in place to monitor the site with drivers who break the rules at risk of receiving penalties. The affected area, which extends from Paddy's Hole towards the tip of the Teesside landmark, is clearly marked with signage indicating it is private land owned by PD Ports.
Calje added: "If there was an emergency on the gare itself, or out on the water or the beach, the current situation would make it very difficult for emergency vehicles to access the area. We have not taken this decision lightly but the sharp rise in the number of people behaving inappropriately in this area means we have no choice."
Emergency access will be maintained with arrangements made to accommodate tenants and licence holders who have already been notified of the changes.
The company is also taking separate action to remove a huge number of abandoned vehicles from the site to help restore South Gare to "a peaceful, well-managed" area.
Despite this, the parking restrictions have been met with mixed views with one person sharing on social media: “Before Covid, it was lovely and quiet down there you can go fishing and everything. Now there were too many campervans.
“We went down there one weekend to go fishing and no parking anywhere without nearly 200 campervans down there and rubbish and everything.”
Another local noted: "The failure of local authority to accommodate the new mobile style of holidaymaker, is a problem all-round the country, shame really, they've been begging us to holiday in UK for years. Now we are they don't want us.”
Another motorist explained that the problem was that people were stopping full time, meaning landowners have a "responsibility for people stopping full time on their land so the easiest thing to do was to stop parking all together".
The resident noted that this is a common practice across the UK and will remain in place as long as "people think they can park where they like and for how long they want".
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Another person added that the decision by PD Ports was "probably not taken lightly". "It’s been getting worse when I was there with my campervan, two people pulled up in motorhomes over seven metres long, one parked up letting his rear overhang the path, forcing people to walk on the grass or the road, another took up four spaces," the resident warned.
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