For many locals and visitors alike the little seaside village of Polzeath is the Cornish dream. By day holiday-makers eating ice-creams and pasties wander barefoot down its one main street. On the large sandy beach, the distant sea is the canvas to a mass of black dots, as children in wetsuits ride the waves with bodyboards and surfboards.
Yet this weekend, as hordes of wealthy teenagers from independent schools across the country descend for their annual two weeks of partying before state schools break up, locals are braced for the darker side of tourism.
This time last year, police imposed a two-day 10pm curfew after drunken late-night beach parties of around 200 teenagers got consistently out of hand. Frustrated residents woke up each day to broken prosecco bottles littering the sand; beach bonfires were loaded with benches, fences and shed doors stolen from local properties, then left to smoulder until morning; and emergency life-saving equipment was vandalised.
This year, the villagers are upping the ante. As well as a towering CCTV camera installed to watch the beach, they have installed rechargeable floodlights.
“We are saying, ‘Yes, come and party’, but at 1am the floodlights will be on the beach so they can see the mess,” says Andy Stewart, a former police officer for 30 years who now battles anti-social behaviour as Polzeath’s community-funded beach ranger. “We will give them bin bags to clear up and say, ‘It’s time for bed’.”
If they don’t step into line, Stewart says the police will consider banning groups at night again, though he worries this could drive the parties to other beaches with less infrastructure to cope.
He says their parents, many of whom own million-pound second homes in the exclusive village of Rock up the road, “haven’t got a clue” what really goes on.
“They think they are sending their kids to this utopia, where they are sitting on the beach, playing guitar and swapping phone numbers,” he says. “They don’t realise there is excessive drinking, cocaine, nitrous oxide, underage sex and big fires.”
Fire crews will visit the beach in the evenings to talk to teenagers about safety. He says partygoers often chuck sand over their fire when they leave, but “that just insulates it so it will still be hot in the morning”.
An estimated five million tourists flock to Cornwall each year, with hundreds of thousands cramming down the M5 each summer. But overtourism is a growing concern, harming local communities through housing shortages, traffic, pollution and litter.
The Polzeath and Rock area has long been a playground of the rich and famous. Gordon Ramsay and David Cameron own houses locally, and Princes William and Harry stayed there as teenagers. Last summer, Stewart talked a TV celebrity out of allowing his young teenagers to hang out on the beach late at night.
“I said, ‘Let me show you a photo of some of the things we found on the beach this morning’. It was a used condom, next to used knickers, next to a used sanitary towel.”
This winter, Stewart appealed directly to the heads of a few expensive schools (he won’t name them) whose pupils are known to be a problem.
Locals are worried about Polzeath getting the sort of stag do reputation that Newquay, further down the north Cornish coast, spent a decade trying to shake off in order to woo back families. But Stewart’s biggest fear is that one of these parties will end up with someone seriously injured or dead.
“They swim when they’re really drunk. And we’ve arrived in the morning to find people lying comatose on the beach from the night before. Not a great idea if the tide is coming in.”
Kathy Alford and Vickie Toland, members of the Polzeath Marine Conservation Group, are out most weeks picking hidden rubbish and microplastic from the seaweed. They know that things will change in the next two weeks. “In the last few years, it’s been big bonfires and lots of bottles just chucked,” Toland says.
“I couldn’t believe it when I first saw the bin man with a wheelbarrow and a dustpan and brush clearing up the road in the morning,” she adds.
Brook Hill, who works at Wavehunters surf school, knows the importance of keeping the beach clean and safe for the hundreds of people who use it in the day. He is ready for another busy summer teaching kids – and often their parents – to surf.
“I can’t say I don’t party every night – I do,” he says. “But I’m respectful and don’t leave glass lying about.”
Last summer, the village stood up to one troublemaker, circulating his picture on the Polzeath community group chat. “If he wants a nice beer or a coffee anywhere, he’ll have trouble,” Hill nods. “Everyone just refused to serve him.”
Sheila Hicks, who cleans the village’s public toilets, is prepared, too. “You get bottles dropped in here,” she says. “Come down here and enjoy it all, but leave it as you found it,” she says.
Issy, a student who works in the Beach Box cafe when she comes home for the holidays, says: “There wouldn’t be a divide with the locals if they showed some respect. It’s a tiny group of people taking it too far and ruining it for everyone.”
She says Cornish teenagers love a beach fire, too. “The difference is they’ve grown up being told by their parents how to put it out properly. They know if you leave broken glass, kids cut their feet.” Stewart says there has got to be “a bit of tolerance”. Many teenagers will have spent weeks sitting stressful exams. “They have a lot of steam to let off, and what an amazing way to do it,” he adds.
However, locals are no longer willing to allow privileged young people to vandalise their beach. “We brace ourselves,” Stewart says. “This year, we are ready.”
Other Cornish hotspots
Newquay
Newquay has worked hard in recent years to shake off its reputation as a stag party destination. A decade ago police banned risque fancy dress and sent some visitors home in a crackdown on antisocial behaviour.
Perranporth
Perranporth’s three miles of golden sand are heaving with people in the summer, and while the small seaside resort is much loved by families seeking an old-fashioned bucket and spade holiday, bars right on the beach and a reputation for great surf make it a hit with teenagers, too.
Falmouth
Falmouth is one of the few Cornish holiday hotspots to still be buzzing in the winter, thanks to its resident student population and long strip of independent bars and restaurants.
