Coaches banned at major UK beauty spot with 600,000 visitors a year in order to cut numbers

Coach trips will no longer be permitted at one of UK’s most popular beauty spots which attracts up to 600,000 people a year. Birling Gap, where the South Downs meet the English Channel, has been swamped by coach-loads of , causing traffic chaos on local roads.

Locals have complained about the impact of the influx of visitors to Birling Gap, located near Beachy Head, which forms part of the iconic Seven Sisters chalk cliffs. And now the has taken action in a bid to reduce the number of visitors.

The narrow B road often becomes congested with SUVs, minibuses and coaches during peak times visiting the location which has featured in films including Atonement and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

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On the National Trust website for Birling Gap and the Seven Sisters cliffs it states: “Please note, we no longer allow coach parking or coach drop-off within our car park at this location.” It instead directs people to “alternative coach parking in the Eastbourne area” and so the action by the National Trust is to stop coaches and not other forms of transport.

Limited parking availability also results in cars parked on grass verges and grassland around the beauty spot during busy periods. Dot Skeaping, 80, expressed her concern about the damaging effects of the large number of visitors on the cliffs, especially when the is good.

"I like living here, but in the summer it is chaos. There are cars and coaches and minibuses absolutely everywhere," she told the . Another resident, Gus Pickett, said that the situation has deteriorated over the six years he has lived there.

He described the number of coaches "disgorging" hundreds of visitors as "incredible", adding that sunny weekends can see thousands of people descending on the place.

A National Trust spokesperson reportedly said: “At Birling Gap, we welcome over 600,000 visitors every year to this small rural clifftop location that is vulnerable to coastal erosion. 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.”

Birling Gap serves as a starting point for coastal walks. It features 500 acres of open, chalk grassland and a beach, which its custodians, the National Trust, say is perfect for seaside picnics. However, this cliff section is prone to coastal erosion.

A significant portion of chalk plummeted from the cliff face at Birling Gap in 2016, marking one of the largest collapses in half a century.

The RNLI consistently cautions individuals not to venture too close to the edge of the cliffs, yet photos reveal tourists frequently disregarding this advice and approaching the dangerous precipice.