Residents of ‘the most beautiful village in England' sound alarm over new car park plans
Residents in a picturesque Cotswolds village that has struggled with tourist behaviour fear that visitor numbers could go up by 800 every hour if a new car park plan is put in place.
Bibury is famous for its row of residential 17th-century weavers' cottages and its water meadow – and was once described by William Morris as 'the most beautiful village in England'.
Yet a huge surge in tourism in the post-Covid era has seen residents complain of tourists climbing over walls and scrambling over private garden fences to take pictures and admire the countryside cottages.
Large coaches and swarms of cars have also left residents frustrated.
In March, Gloucestershire County Council announced that action is starting to be taken to tackle congestion by changing the layout of coach parking bays to stop coaches from parking or waiting in the layby on the B4425 in the centre of the village.
A working group has been set up in collaboration with the Cotswold District Council, Bibury Parish Council and Gloucestershire Constabulary to discuss ideas and proposals to manage the influx of visitor coaches.
In the future, the group said it will explore recommendations, such as introducing restrictions on coach access in the centre of the village, installing traffic access signage and encouraging travel by minibus.
Councillor Craig Chapman, the chairman of Bibury Parish Council, said: 'Whilst the residents of Bibury acknowledge that we live in a lovely village, the pressures put on us by the sheer volume of tourists visiting and coaches bringing tourists has become intolerable and unacceptable.
'As a consequence of the lack of infrastructure, road narrowness and the disruptive and unsafe location of the two existing coach bays, it is a fact that Bibury is not a suitable destination for larger coaches.
'Whilst this is the start of action it is very positive and I am confident will be appreciated by the community.''
It is not just coaches that cause congestion, with local business Bibury Trout Farm agreeing to use their car park, around the corner from the village, in the past for cars and small coaches to move some of the parking off the streets.
The owner of the farm has now submitted a planning application for a new parking site with enough space for 100 cars, 12 coaches and a shuttle bus into the village.
Yet villager Wendy Hazelwood told the BBC News she was not in agreement with the idea.
"This [the proposed new parking site] is totally counter-productive to what we want to achieve in the village because it will bring approximately 800 tourists, maybe, every hour extra into the village.
"We're trying to reduce the tourism, not increase it," she added.
Meanwhile, Maxwell Thomas, owner of Bibury Trout Farm, argued that large amounts of tourism are inevitable whether there is additional parking or not.
"People have been coming to this village for hundreds of years and businesses have been here for hundreds of years,' he told the BBC.
"It's in the 10 prettiest villages in the world and you expect to have people visiting all the time, you can't help it," he said.
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