Plea for Poldark fans to avoid two Cornish beaches amid ‘gridlock’

A plea for Poldark fans to avoid two beaches featured in the hit TV series has been made by a Cornwall tourism boss.

Huge numbers of visitors were making a beeline for just two out of the county’s 400 beaches – Kynance Cove and Porthcurno.

Visit Cornwall chief executive Malcolm Bell warned the surge was causing “gridlock” and asked tourists to consider visiting less popular spots.

“On particular peak days and especially at weekends, we have suffered from gridlock in these places,” he said.

“For anybody who loves and knows our Cornwall, these particular beaches are down quite windy roads so it’s not always that easy to just quickly drive on because you have got to turn round.

“It’s about informing and distributing so people have a great holiday and enjoy Cornwall rather than getting frustrated at being stuck down one of our beautiful Cornish lanes.”

Mr Bell insisted Cornwall still wanted to welcome tourists to the area and he was grateful for the popularity generated by the BBC One show, which he said had caused a 10% increase in visitors.

“Dear Mr Aidan Turner and his wonderful chest and thighs walking down the water is better advertising than we could ever hope to get,” he said.

“There are actually lots of other beaches he is filmed on and we can point people to, because we have 400 miles of coastline and a beach for every mile.”

A tourist tax would not be the answer either, Mr Bell insisted, particularly with one in three Cornish households and 53,000 employees reliant on the tourism industry.

“About 30% of all tourist tax goes on tax already,” he said, pointing to VAT and employment tax.

“It’s not a matter of another tax but whether some of that money should come back from London.

“Maybe there is an argument about Treasury gain versus local pain.”