Yahoo Movies Dangerous parking at UK beauty spots is ‘putting lives at risk’, authorities warn
Britons flocking to the nation’s beauty spots are "putting lives at risk" by parking in precarious places, officials have warned.
More than 500 cars were parked along mountain roads in Snowdonia over the weekend, with people camping in lay-bys to hike up the Welsh mountain, the BBC reported.
One Twitter user filmed the scene from her car on Sunday, saying she “couldn’t believe the amount of cars” on the Pen-y-Pass way – and it was only 7.30am.
Helen Pye, of the Snowdonia National Park Authority, told the news site the number of visitors flooding in on Saturday and Sunday "was nothing like they'd ever seen before".
Went for early drive this morning, one of our faves, through Llanberis, over Pen y Pass down to Betws and Llanrwst. Couldn’t believe the amount of cars parked on the road at Pen y Pass 7.30am) 😔 #Llanberis #Penypass #Betwsycoed #Llanrwst pic.twitter.com/xF6AZLbDBz
— SarahT (@Wilson2009)
Meanwhile, in the town of Barmouth, day trippers were condemned for filling up spaces reserved for lifeboat rescue teams.
The RNLI said the culprits were "potentially putting lives at risk" by filling up the fore court.
Please DO NOT use the boathouse fore court as a car park. We need this space for crew to park incase of a shout and to get the lifeboats out. You are potentially putting lives at risks parking here. #RNLI #Respect #volunteers pic.twitter.com/vvg6sGAPTn
— Barmouth Lifeboat (@RNLI_Barmouth)
Scores of national parks up and down the country were shut at the start of the coronavirus lockdown, as the public was urged to “stay at home”.
However, car parks and paths reopened in Snowdonia on July 6, after Wales’s local travel restrictions were lifted.
It comes amid an ongoing row over damage caused to parks, beaches and other areas of natural beauty by hordes of Brits shaking off months of confinement.
Last week, it emerged that park users left the equivalent of 20 double-decker busloads of litter across London’s Royal Parks over just one month of lockdown.
The Royal Parks said 62 extra tonnes of rubbish were left in their eight parks in June compared with the same month last year – an increase of one third.
Litter pickers spent more than 11,000 hours collecting more than 250 tonnes of rubbish in June – the equivalent weight of 20 London buses.
Park managers have described it as a “never-before-seen level of littering”, with their staff finding a Christmas tree fly-tipped in Kensington Gardens, along with other items such as office furniture, pizza boxes, glass bottles and personal protective equipment (PPE).
Similarly, further north, climbers and hillwalkers are being urged to help keep Scotland’s mountains beautiful by taking their litter home with them.
The country has seen a number of its beauty spots spoiled by rubbish, with reports of broken bottles, abandoned tents and even human waste left behind.
Mountaineering Scotland is now launching its Tak It Hame 2020 campaign, urging people not to leave their litter in the wild but to take it away and dispose of it properly.
Visitors are encouraged to take a suitable bag in their backpack each time they venture out to take rubbish away, and to think about how they could reduce their use of packaging for drinks, snacks and packed lunches.
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