30 July 2023 , 14:05
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An angler’s car has been vandalised after she was embroiled in a parking dispute at a popular fishing beach, as local residents are at loggerheads with wild campers.
Amanda Smith, 52, says there were no restrictions where she parked her car near Abbotsbury Beach in Dorset - and that she parked there most weekends without a problem. But this time her car was vandalised with ‘No Parking’ and ‘I am a t**t’ sprayed on either side of her car.
It happened in “broad daylight” according to Amanda, who says it was not long after she arrived at the beach that her Peugeot 2008 was graffitied and the air let out from all four tires. “I had just set the tent up and the next minute I had two girls come over to ask if I owned the red Peugeot. Someone had spray-painted my car and let the tires down,” she explained.
“I wasn't happy to say the least, but I was more shocked than anything that someone would do this. And it was done in broad daylight. It's embarrassing driving round in it.” Amanda tried and failed to blow up the tires with a foot pump, but was helped by a local fisherman who got the car running.
Despite the cafe worker’s protests that there were no parking restrictions, some argued the car was blocking a turning circle and hindering emergency access. A Dorset Council spokesman confirmed there is no parking restriction.
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The vandalism came as local residents complained of the ‘tent cities’ built by wild campers, using their gardens as toilets, littering, and making their lives a misery. A Public Space Protection Order came into effect last summer which banned wild camping on Chesil Beach - which includes Abbotsbury Beach - but night fishermen and fisherwomen are exempt from this.
The car was on lease at the time it was vandalised and Amanda has since had to take the car to get the graffiti removed. She can’t understand why it was vandalised: “We have been down there most weekends and have always parked in the same spot. There are around three or four cars that park down there at one time,” she said.
A spokesperson for Dorset Police said: "Dorset Police received a report at 7.55pm on Thursday 20 July 2023 of criminal damage to a vehicle in Abbotsbury. Enquiries are ongoing into the report. No arrests have been made."