The National Trust has banned coaches from parking at one of the country’s most popular beauty and hiking spots, in an effort to save its eroding coastline.
People wishing to visit the Birling Gap and Seven Sisters cliffs will have to arrive at the coastal site by other means now.
Up to 600,000 people a year visit the site to admire the iconic views or walk along the white chalk cliffs – one of the longest stretches of undeveloped coastline on the south coast.
But the National Trust, who manage the site, are trying to limit these crowds in an effort to protect the cliffs from coastal erosion and keep visitors safe.
On the National Trust website for Birling Gap and the Seven Sisters cliffs it now states: “Please note, we no longer allow coach parking or coach drop-off within our car park at this location.
The notice adds that there is alternative coach parking in the nearby Eastbourne area.
“At Birling Gap, we welcome over 600,000 visitors every year to this small rural clifftop location that is vulnerable to coastal erosion,” a National Trust spokesperson told the BBC.
“We’ve seen a significant increase in coach visits in recent years, which the site is unable to cope with. We continue to welcome visitors by car, motorbike, minibus and bus service.”
The National Trust says the chalk on the cliffs erodes in such a way that “large pieces fall away and leave near-vertical faces”.
It added that the cliffs are “very fragile” due to the chalk which can be softened further by heavy rain or undercut by wind and wave action.
“This means the cliff edge is very unstable and at risk of collapsing at all times,” the National Trust has said, adding that there has been “significant change” at Birling Gap in the last year in an effort to adapt to coastal change.
The coach ban news was welcomed by locals, who say the site has been “ruined” by an increase in visitors in recent years.
“It’s a tsunami and it’s having a really big impact on the small road, the verges, the grassland and the paths. Everything is being worn away,” Philip Myerson who lives nearby, told the Daily Mail.
Dot Skeaping, a former National Trust worker who lives in a cottage close to the cliffs, also told the paper: “The National Trust wants to welcome people to Birling Gap but it wants them to see it at its best. Banning all coaches is a good idea as they are often huge, arrive in large numbers and are an eyesore.”
The Independent has contacted the National Trust for a comment.
