A large group of travellers in motorhomes descended on a car park adjoining the exclusive ‘Millionaires’ Row’ on Sandbanks beach, where they lit bonfires, emptied chemical toilets and drank in groups while flouting Covid lockdown rules.
Around ten vehicles set up camp yesterday half a mile down the road from football manager Harry Redknapp’s £3.5m seafront mansion, and other multimillion-pound homes, in Poole, Dorset – in the same car park where Redknapp washed his two bulldogs just hours earlier.
Ten men were seen ignoring social distancing rules by sitting at an outdoor table – with several boxes of Corona beer on the ground next to them – while one traveller was spotted emptying a chemical toilet in the nearby bushes during their overnight stay.
The car park is just off an 850ft stretch of road that contains 13 harbourside mansions that total a staggering £93million in value.
Sandbanks’ sun-soaked peninsula has the most expensive coastal real estate in the world – and is renowned as a millionaires’ playground where £10million properties play host to business moguls and celebrities alike.
Other residents include former footballer Graeme Souness, interior designer Celia Sawyer and computer magnate Sir Peter Ogden.
So locals were shocked to see all the campervans turn up, and could only watch as the occupants started bonfires in the car park before bedding down for the night.
A large group of travellers in motorhomes descended on a car park adjoining the exclusive Sandbanks beach, in Poole, Dorset, on Sunday while flouting Covid lockdown rules
One group of ten men were seen ignoring social distancing rules by sitting at an outdoor table – with several boxes of Corona beer on the ground next to them
One traveller was spotted emptying a chemical toilet in the nearby bushes during their overnight stay. Around 40 people were belived to be in the group which arrived at the car park
Another cluster of travellers were spotted enjoying the warm weekend weather while sitting closely together at a table by one of their vehicles yesterday
Locals were shocked to see all the caravans turn up, and could only watch as the occupants started bonfires in the car park before bedding down for the night
Staff from Dorset council arrived this morning to clean up the rubbish left by the travellers, who started leaving at 8.30am
Football manager Harry Redknapp and his wife, Sandra (pictured), visited the same car park just hours earlier on Sunday morning to clean their two bulldogs – Barney and Lulu – in a dog-washing machine
Staff from Dorset council arrived this morning to clean up the rubbish left by the travellers, who started leaving at 8.30am.
One angry traveller urinated against a council truck in protest at being thrown out the car park. MailOnline has contacted Dorset Council for comment.
Those who are caught sleeping in their vehicles on council-owned land face fixed penalty notices of up to £70.
It comes as Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council, along with Dorset Police, have reiterated their ‘think twice’ campaign after a huge influx of campervans in the area during the hot weather.
Dorset Police has issued 875 fixed penalty notices between March 27 and May 21 to people who have allegedly breached the Covid-19 restrictions.
Football manager and former player Harry Redknapp, and his wife, Sandra, spoke to Weekend magazine in February about their south-coast home of 20 years in Sandbanks.
‘We moved to Bournemouth in 1972 when I came to play football. We paid £4 a week rent for a four-bedroom house until we bought it off the club for £15,000,’ said 73-year-old I’m A Celebrity winner Harry.
Shocked locals look on as their local car park fills up with the campervans – amid outcry that local authorities are not doing enough to combat the problem
The scenes come as Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council, along with Dorset Police, have reiterated their ‘think twice’ campaign after a huge influx of campervans in the area during the hot weather
Police have warned lockdown-breaking campers to keep away after many ignored no staying overnight rules amid fears of a second spike of coronavirus deaths
One angry traveller urinated against a council truck in protest at being thrown out today – and just avoided hitting a crate of San Miguel beer
A specialist team from Dorset Council arrived early this morning to remove the motorhomes from the car park
‘Sandbanks is down the road from Bournemouth but we didn’t know about it then. It became the place to be 20 years ago, so they started building new houses.’
Meanwhile, thousands of Britons have flocked to beaches over the Bank Holiday weekend to bask in 80F temperatures.
Police have warned lockdown-breaking campers to keep away after many ignored no staying overnight rules amid fears of a second spike of coronavirus deaths.
Devon and Cornwall’s police and crime commissioner Alison Hernandez warned people to ‘think twice’ before they ‘break the rules by staying overnight, parking illegally or driving dangerously’.
The tiny millionaires’ playground – an 850ft stretch of road in Sandbanks – knocked the likes of Miami and Monte Carlo off their mantles to become the most expensive stretch of coastal real estate in the world in 2018. This photo reveals the 13 properties in Sandbanks at the time, which together are worth some £93m
Harry Redknapp in the garden of his home of 20 years in Sandbanks. It is around 1,000 metres from where the travellers descended on Sunday
The sun-soaked area on the south coast peninsula is renowned as a millionaire’s playground where £10million properties play host to business moguls and celebrities alike
Source: Daily Mail – Articles
