'I live in the UK's best seaside town - people are clueless about its dark side'
A woman who lives in 'the best seaside town in the country' says it has a little-discussed dark side.
Earlier this month St Ives was judged to be amongst the UK's best seaside towns, beating the likes of Whitstable and Southwold.
The Cornish idyll was praised for its excellent art scene centred around the Tate gallery, charming side streets and the exceptional array of places to eat and drink.
Not everyone is such a big fan of St Ives however.
Rebecca Quick, who has lived in St Ives for 50 years, suggested the voting panel responsible for elevating to the town to the number one spot probably don't live there.
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Rebecca opened up about her issues with St IvesFor her, the town is synonymous with rude tourists, empty second homes, 'plain greedy' landlords and poverty.
"I might be so bold as to suggest it is the second home owners who have done this," Rebecca said when asked how St Ives has changed.
"To them, St Ives is this little, idyllic place that they visit every few months. They don't see the poverty.
"They don't notice the houses that remain empty all winter. They don't experience the abject rudeness that the locals suffer from these entitled visitors.
"They don't feel the hit of a maximum council tax rise of 5% while there are huge cuts in services."
Rebecca said she was "happy to shine a light on the darker side of life in St Ives" having grown frustrated with the way the town had changed over the past five decades.
The town topped the list of the best seaside towns in the country (Getty Images)She feels like the sense of community in the town has been lost as the economy moves away from fishing to tourism, which means there's a huge seasonal shift in population and atmosphere.
Around 540,000 day trippers and 220,000 overnight-stayers grace the town each year, swelling the 11,000 population massively and bringing close to 3,000 jobs to the town.
As with many destinations in tourist hotspots such as Cornwall, the ease with which cash rich landlords can buy up properties and rent them out to holidaymakers at bumped up prices has seen the housing market soar.
Between 2020 and 2021 average property prices swelled 15% to £473,161, with the average home increasing in value from £100,000 in 2000 to £350,000 in 2018.
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Rebecca says young people are being priced out of homes in the area (Getty Images)"When I was growing up here I knew my neighbours. We had neighbours back then," Rebecca continued.
"There was a real sense of community. These days some streets in town are completely unoccupied during the winter months because the houses have all been bought as second homes and holiday lets.
"The youngsters have nowhere to live and no real hope of owning their own home anywhere near St Ives and their families because what properties do come up for sale are priced too high for any first time buyer to aspire to. Tourists are an important part of the Cornish economy but they are not the be all and end all."
Locals feel like second homes are making it impossible to have a community feel (Getty Images/iStockphoto)Rebecca regularly witnesses tension between residents and visitors to the town, with tourists displaying an "overwhelming sense of entitlement".
"Rudeness is something (workers in the town) all have to deal with on a far too regular basis," she continued.
"Tourist know that they are needed but that shouldn't give them the right to leave their manners at home.
"I have listened to countless horror stories on this subject not to mention many encounters of my own.
"I avoid town like the plague in peak season so as to avoid the crushing inevitability of a fracas with a fed up, bored, soggy holiday maker."
One such horror story involved a man visiting a café who kept clicking at the waitress when he wanted her attention, before offering her a 90p tip if she smiled at him.
The Tate gallery is one of many draws to the town (Getty Images)Like many people who've grown up in St Ives and other popular parts of Cornwall, Rebecca wants to see more regulation to control the property market.
In January a 100% council tax premium on second homes was approved by the county council in a bid to get the 13,000 such properties in Cornwall as full as possible.
"We could start by building homes for locals, local authority housing," Rebecca continued when asked about her vision for a better St Ives.
"We could improve the infrastructure, better access to doctors and can you imagine....a dentist?
"Parking is a terrible problem. The lack of actual spaces and then the cost of parking puts locals off shopping in town which in turn has a direct affect on local businesses.
"The council are now looking to overhaul the parking charges, in many places doubling the price."
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