Visit Weston urges people to ‘stay away’ from town

A tourism service aimed at attracting visitors to Weston-super-Mare is urging people to ‘stay away’ from the town.

Visit Weston has adopted a temporary logo to state Weston is ‘closed’ to holidaymakers and tourists after hundreds of people flocked to the beach on the weekend.

LIVE BLOG: Coronavirus in North Somerset.

A Visit Weston spokesman said: “While our beautiful beaches and seafront might ordinarily have been the perfect location for stretching our legs and feeling some sun on our faces, given that far too many people are choosing to not follow advice on keeping safe distances and not congregating in large groups as we’ve seen in Weston lately, we must now please ask you to stop.

“Most of our visitor attractions are now closed following the guidelines issued by the Government, with many more businesses – including accommodation providers, also following suit. This means that for the time being there will be no donkeys, no ice cream, no buckets and spades, no Grand Pier or any of the usual seaside fun we all associate with Weston.”

The Visitor Information Centre, Weston Museum, Playhouse and Blakehay Theatres and cinemas, restaurants, coffee shops and pubs are all closed for the foreseeable future.

Last weekend, thousands of people across the UK ignored the Government’s advice about avoiding going out in large groups and maintaining social distancing.

This forced Prime Minister Boris Johnson to put the country into lockdown and order all non-essential businesses to close on Monday.

Visit Weston added: “As a tourism service, we appreciate that asking people to stay away is the very opposite of our usual aims and objectives, but for the safety of visitors and residents, we have no option.

“Weston will be ready and waiting for you all when the Government announces that our lives can begin returning to normal, whenever that might be. In the meantime we will do our best to deliver Weston to you instead.

“We’ll share pictures and videos, blogs, stories and information and try to evoke a sense of the seaside in your homes through our website and our social media pages.

“It is only right and proper that we take care of our population, especially those who are vulnerable and that we support the sterling work being done by our hospital, NHS staff and care workers.

“This measure is aimed at giving them that protection in the hope that we can beat this horrible virus as soon as possible.”