Cornwall residents have been posting pictures of holidaymakers abandoning cars on double yellow lines, clogging up narrow streets and, in some cases, even heading the wrong way down roads as the school summer getaway brings thousands of visitors to the county.
Locals say patience is wearing thin with “Emmits” — Cornish slang for outsiders — accusing some visitors of selfish parking, blocking access and ignoring one-way systems.
Complaints have also been mounting over holiday lets, with residents describing the strain of living beside noisy Airbnbs. Cornwall has nearly 25,000 of them, and some neighbours say they are regularly disturbed by “screaming kids” and “loud families”.
The tensions come as changes to parking arrangements threaten to add fresh disruption in one of Britain’s busiest holiday destinations this weekend.
From August 1, almost all council-run car parks in Cornwall will stop taking cash payments — a move arriving in the middle of the peak tourist season.
One local mother struck a chord with other residents after describing online what it is like to live beside a property used as a holiday rental.
Writing on social media on Wednesday, she said: “Live in a tourist area. Every morning without fail, the house at the back of us being rented for holidays is seemingly awake and outside from 6.30am.
“Two small children who talk incessantly, cry and scream…I get up every summer when I’m off to have a peaceful coffee in the garden.
One St Ives resident shared a video of cars parked by ’emmits’ on double yellow lines, blocking the narrow and winding road
Long queues for car parks in St Ives are a common sight in the peak summer season
Cornwall is one of Britain’s most popular holiday spots, with nearly 25,000 active holiday rentals. Pictured: St Ives
Another shared an image of a car parked with its doors open. Parking is one of the many summer flashpoints
‘They’re very annoying! And there’s no intervention from the parents. I think they couldn’t do this in their own neighbourhood, but probably aren’t a**ed as they’re on holiday and won’t see anyone again?!’
Another sympathetic local commented on the post: ‘Add to that the dumped rubbish including dirty nappies and the tourists who drive at 5mph when I am trying to get to work!’
One woman added: ‘I absolutely hated it when my next door neighbours Airbnb’ed their house for the summer a few years ago so you have my sympathy.
‘Although for me it’s more the drunk tourists shouting down the street at 1-2am that annoy me – kids will always be kids but seriously even when I’ve been drunk on holiday I know how to be quiet!’
With an estimated 24,800 active short-term rental and Airbnb listings in Cornwall averaging £164 a night according to recent data from AirDNA, it’s no surprise locals are fed up of ‘Londoners’ invading their county.
This is despite attempts last year to clamp down on second homes in Cornwall being used as rentals.
On April 1, 2025, Cornwall Council introduced an additional 100 per cent council tax premium on second homes.
The chaos in Cornwall has spread to the roads too, as locals on Facebook shared images of badly parked four-by-fours and videos of queues to get into one of the county’s few crammed car parks.
One woman shared an image to a Facebook page titled ‘St Ives Moaning Forum’ of a tourist moving road traffic cones out of the way so that he could park there.
Another local caught a man moving traffic cones out of the road so that he could park there
She wrote last Sunday: ‘Six cars parked all along leading up to the bus stop, the sixth actually moving the cones laid out where construction starts. Not small cars either.’
One man captured a five-door vehicle parked on double yellow lanes along a narrow winding road, writing: ‘Bloody Emmits are back, how can someone think it’s logical to park there?! Silly season is upon us!’
The post, shared with the reaction ‘feeling furious’ got over 100 likes and 344 comments.
Another posted a photo of a car parked with its front right passenger door wide open – as if to deter someone parking next to it.
They shared the image last weekend as schools broke out for the summer holidays, with the caption: ‘If you are going to park in a space that you have absolutely no right at all to be in – maybe consider closing all your doors?’
One man had a direct confrontation with a tourist, sharing on Facebook on Monday: ‘Holidaymaker hit my mirror yesterday at market place shouting I shouldn’t be on the road.
‘Wonder what he would think if I stood on his road shouting at him that he shouldn’t be driving to where he lives.
‘Some of these think St Ives is a theme park like Disney, they just don’t seem to realise people actually live here. Morons.’
St Ives (pictured) has about 10,000 permanent residents but 760,000 annual visitors
Cornwall is set to be thrown further into parking chaos on Saturday, as a change to parking rules could make it even more difficult for tourists and locals alike to find a spot.
St Ives – which has repeatedly been awarded the best seaside town in the UK – is an old fishing port with narrow winding streets. But every summer it is blighted with parking that blocks roads and causes long traffic queues.
Locals say that banning cash and only accepting contactless and app payments – alongside a major hike in car park prices earlier this year – could force even more people to illegally park on the road instead or see visitors avoid the town altogether.
Just one car park on the edge of town will continue to accept cash with people having to walk close to a mile to reach the beach, town centre shops and the Tate gallery.
Campaigners say this will disproportionately affect older people who are more likely to choose to pay by cash.
Martin Quinn from the Campaign for Cash UK said: ‘When we have power outages and the internet goes down what are we going to do?
‘One car park per town in Cornwall – everybody is going to be driving there so it’s going to be full up. It’s an ill-thought-out idea to save £80,000 per year.
‘There will be gridlock because people will drive around and if you can’t get a car parking space what are you going to do, drive around again?
‘Not everybody has a smartphone, in rural areas the internet can be very patchy and we are trying to get more people into the high street.’
Cornwall Council Conservative group leader Connor Donnithorne argued: ‘There is absolutely no need to do this. The revenue saving is minuscule when you look at a £1.2bn budget at Cornwall Council.
‘That money can be found from efficiencies elsewhere which won’t make it more difficult for people to go in and support local businesses and high streets across Cornwall.
‘It is undeniable that the majority of people use card and contactless to park their vehicles, but there’s a significant chunk of people who can’t or won’t use it.
‘There are lots of people who are digitally excluded in Cornwall. There are a lot of people who just want to use cash.
‘Local councils shouldn’t be making life unnecessarily more difficult for people.’
St Ives has about 10,000 permanent residents but 760,000 annual visitors with the vast majority arriving during the summer.
One resident complained that the actions of antisocial tourists are getting worse and branded them ‘narcissistic knobs’.
They said: ‘The town needs to get a grip on antisocial behaviour of all sorts, unfortunately the type of tourists have changed.
‘Now we have so many basic, entitled, do-as-I-like attitude people. St Ives needs to get a reputation where it has a no-nonsense approach, traffic wardens, dog wardens, police, the reputation would soon get around.
‘You wouldn’t lose tourists you would get rid of the entitled narcissistic knobs.’
But holidaymaker Vince Berry said: ‘Not all tourist are like this, when I come into St Ives we get a bus in from Hayle or park up by leisure centre, also we spend a lot of money in local shops and establishments.
‘A small amount of tourists are giving a bad name to all us law-abiding ones.’
Last month, locals were outraged when a holidaymaker grabbed a seagull and allegedly punched it to death in the town centre after it tried to steal his fish burger.
Rosie Reynolds, who witnessed the attack, told the Daily Mail: ‘He was walking with his wife and child and the gull just swooped down.
‘He just grabbed it and had its head in his hand and punched it hard in the chest. It was sort of held in his arm so it couldn’t escape.
‘After three or four punches the bird went limp then he threw it to the ground where it just lay there, it was still alive but its chest cavity was caved in and I think it just went off to die.
‘I went over and berated him as did some other people, I said ‘you can’t do that, its illegal’ and his wife said the same, I think she was shocked, I asked if he’d do the same to a child who stole an ice cream but he just called me a cow and told me to f*** off.
‘I’m just so shocked, tourists sometimes kick out at the seagulls but this is the worst I’ve ever seen.’
The man was later identified as hard-Left activist Jonathan ‘Jonny’ Mr Roberts who spoke about the incident in a video on X saying: ‘A lot of seagulls swooped down and stole my f*****g fish butty. So I f*****g knocked one out. That was it.
‘I literally punched it right on the f*****g head. I fully admit that. People are making out I stamped on its f*****g head.’
Herring gulls are a protected species under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, offenders can face unlimited fines and up to six months in prison.
Devon and Cornwall Police this week confirmed investigations are ongoing but no arrests have been made.
