Councillor calls tourists 'the great unwashed'

Malham Cove is popular with visitors

A councillor has called tourists visiting beauty spots in the Yorkshire Dales National Park "the great unwashed" while criticising their behaviour in the countryside.

David Staveley made the comments during a discussion about over-tourism in locations such as Horton-in-Ribblesdale and Malham Cove, at a North Yorkshire Council meeting on Thursday.

Mr Staveley, who represents Settle and Pen-y-ghent, said some visitors were "not behaving well" and were leaving large amounts of litter behind.

Skipton and Ripon area councillors had gathered to debate the impact of tourism ahead of the peak summer season.

'Filled to the brim with litter'

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Mr Staveley said: "They aren’t behaving very well.

"Some people don’t know how to appreciate what we have in a way that’s acceptable to those who live here and pay a price to live here.”

He added that he had been sent a photograph of a skip “filled to the brim” with litter that had been collected by a local vicar with help from volunteers.

He also claimed that residents of Horton, a start and finish point for the Three Peaks Challenge, left their homes at weekends to avoid tourists as they were “blighted” by issues such as congested roads.

His comments provoked shock from Swinton Park Hotel owner and Councillor for Masham, Felicity Cunliffe-Lister, who suggested the term “great unwashed” was unhelpful.

She said North Yorkshire Council could address the problem of litter by putting bins in the right places.

Councillor Richard Foster, who represents Wharfedale, said Grassington had become hugely popular with American tourists in recent years after it was used as a filming location for the TV series All Creatures Great and Small.

But he said the town’s popularity had seen some businesses increase their prices, leaving local people unable to afford to buy a coffee.

Ripon has two rivers and a canal, which led Councillor Andrew Williams to joke the city had “no difficulty welcoming the great unwashed or washed”.

He said the only issue it had with tourists was on race days, when Ripon was "flooded" with coaches.

Councillor Robert Heseltine, of Skipton East and South, lamented the changes in society while harking back to simpler times.

He said: “One advantage of being elderly is I can think back to the 1960s when society went downhill with edicts about mods and rockers. They were termed 'long-haired louts'.

“I don’t think there are many unwashed about, but certainly there are people who don’t keep to reasonable standards.”

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