WEST WITTERING BEACH PLAYS HOST TO UNPRECEDENTED NUMBER OF VISITORS

Residents and visitors alike at the West Wittering beach were on hand to speak about the chaos that surrounded the beach non Sunday, June 18, the hottest day of the year so far.


No less than 5,000 vehicles travelled down to the beach on that day to get a piece of the action. James Crespi, manager of the West Wittering Beach Estate pegged the number of vehicles at approximately 5,100.

He also noted that no less than a further 200 vehicles are expected to travel down to the beach on Sunday.

Di Dowling,a 49 year old resident of Bognor who visited the beach for theChichester Rugby Club’s annual beach rugby day, stated that it was a total nightmare trying to get into and out of the car park.

By 8am when she had come by to drop off her daughter and husband, the traffic had already begun queuing.

Dowling said: “We left early because we knew it was going to be busy. The rugby got relegated from West Wittering beach to East Head by the Estate so they could make space for more people.
“I have multiple sclerosis so I went home and came back at about 4.30pm to pick up my husband, daughter and her friend.”

Dowling who continued, stated that by the time she was able to leave the car park, it was almost 8.30pm, at a time the car park was due to close.

She also mentioned a friend of theirs who tried to leave the car park around 7.15pm, yet ended up staying there till way past 9.15 pm.

The manager, Crespi noted that the large number of people in attendance made it quite difficult to control despite several warnings of a full car park displayed at the entrance.