Councillor spat at and verbally abused by visitors to Durdle Door

Cllr Laura Miller, who lives in West Lulworth village, was helping to direct traffic on Wednesday after the roads to Durdle Door were closed due to safety concerns. She said she was abused by 60 per cent of the drivers and was even spat at by people being turned away.

She said: "I went up to help the highways team because they were overwhelmed, people were just driving past them.

"This family had come down from Peterborough. I had already thrown them out three times but the driver would say 'my child is disabled and you're stopping them from having a day at the beach' and they kept coming back, even though the car park was full and there was nowhere to go.

"One driver spat at my feet because I said there is no option, there is no space, you have to go.

"It was terrifying in all honesty, he spat at my shoes but you don't know at the time. That aspect was really frightening.

"The overriding thing that bothers me is that's not part of my job. I'm not trying to be a hero but we were all there trying to make sure everyone had a good time, because when there are too many people on the beach nobody is having a good time."

Even worse was the disgusting mess left behind by beach-goers. As well as caves stuffed full of bags of litter and a number of disposable barbecues being picked up, volunteer litter pickers also discovered human excrement where children would swim.

Cllr Miller said: "That's becoming a bit of a regular occurrence. My kids won't swim in the sea anymore because of the human waste, it's just disgusting.

"It's heartbreaking really, when you have grown up somewhere and you see how beautiful somewhere is and you just want to look after it.

"I got in from directing traffic at about 5.30pm, then from 6.30pm until 10pm I went out with volunteers to help litter pick. We filled about 30 bin bags from the beach itself. There were brand-new buckets and spades, paddling pools and swimsuits just left behind.

"People had filled up one of the little caves with black bin bags filled with rubbish and just left it all behind."

Cllr Miller said that recent events have meant she has stopped visiting her local beach. "We feel absolutely trapped in this village," she said. "I bought a massive paddling pool for the garden for when it gets really hot because we won't go to the beach even though I live a quarter of a mile from there. It's too busy and there is no social distancing and the kids don't feel safe swimming where there is human waste."

Snapchat has been blamed for flocks of people from across the country visiting Durdle Door.

Cllr Laura Miller said the vast majority of beach-goers during this week's heatwave have been young people, who most likely spotted the Dorset beauty spot on the social networking app.

She said: "It's groups of young lads. I hate to say it but it's different people coming down. You used to get families and extended families but now it's big party groups basically.

"The next morning some volunteers litter picked really early and there were tents all along the area. They said it was like Glastonbury, it looked like a festival. People are breaking into the fields and these aren't the people that would book a camp site if they were open, they are driving down four or five hours to do this.

"It wasn't local traffic, it's people from London and further who haven't seen our communications, so we are trying to get the word out nationally now.

"I think a big problem is Snapchat because you can go on the heat map to see where the activity is and there was a lot happening at Durdle Door. The videos make it seem like this big Mediterranean party beach but it is only small."