Calls for more powers to control tourism at Dedham Vale

Social media focussed attention on the wrong areas, the Dedham Vale Society said

The social media age is causing problems with tourism in one of the UK's most beautiful areas, a conservation group said.

Dedham Vale, on the Essex-Suffolk border, is a 14-mile (22.5km) Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

But Charles Clover, of the Dedham Vale Society, said social media "focussed attention" in all the wrong places.

"We welcome tourists," he said, "but there are places where they are not behaving terribly well."

Dedham Vale, and the surrounding countryside along the River Stour, attracted more than 6.4m tourists in 2021 alone.

The area was a muse for the artist John Constable and attracted more than 6m visitors in 2021

The area straddles Essex and Suffolk, including "Constable country", the picturesque home of the celebrated artist John Constable, who painted the landscape in some of his most well-known works.

Dedham Vale also features regularly in the Sunday Times' Best Places To Live list.

The Dedham Vale stretches for 14 miles (22.5km) along the River Stour on the Essex-Suffolk border

Mr Clover called for the AONB to be extended further into nearby Gainsborough country, bringing in villages like Polstead and moving the focus away from just Dedham.

One area, known to visitors as Dedham beach, had "turned into Bournemouth beach", he said.

"In the social media age, just putting Dedham into the search engine has just focused people's attention on one field and it's become a problem," he told BBC Essex.

"It's not a beach at all, it's a farmer's field with a footpath on it. It's wonderful, but huge family groupings, with all the impedimenta and the paddleboards, all arrived on what's known as Dedham beach on social media."

He said the police also had to stop young people parking on the bridge and jumping off into the shallow water "off the roof of their cars".

The vale is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB)

Mr Clover called for local authorities, and the AONB board, to have greater powers to curb the litter and problems generated by excessive tourism.

"The problem here is one of governance," he said.

He said the government needed to stop "sitting on a report" commissioned by the David Cameron administration in 2018, which offered AONBs the same protection as national parks.

"Tourism benefits this village," he added, "and shops there wouldn't be otherwise - it is a balance.

"But it's about the inability of anyone to manage these pressure points."

The society said " best places" lists needed to focus further up the Stour Valley to take attention away from Dedham

Kevin Pincher, who runs the Dedham centre tea rooms, said the influx of tourists often put off regulars and made deliveries and road access difficult.

"We have a lot of visitors come - they turn up down at the river and bring all their picnic stuff - and don't actually come up the high street into the village centre," he said.

"They blow up their lilos, and have kayaks and paddleboards and stay down there. I would like them to take their litter with them, come up to the village and see the churches and the other businesses on offer in Dedham.

"It would be nice to have the footfall but it has to be managed properly."