Stepping out of Scarborough railway station into the warm sea air, Barbara Hunt and her husband Maurice immediately felt at home. It was their first visit to the Yorkshire coast, but the climate was similar to that of their native Sydney in the summer.
The pensioners, who were on a five-week visit to the UK, were rather confused by the country’s response to the heatwave. “It’s part of life in Australia, but here it’s panic stations,” said Morris, 79. “We really find it a bit over the top.”
The Hunts found themselves on one of the few trains arriving in Scarborough on Monday after National Rail advised customers to only travel if absolutely necessary.
While large parts of Britain are baking in temperatures in the mid to high 30s, Scarborough is staying a bit cooler. True to its history as one of Britain’s first spa resorts, on Monday it provided a welcome retreat for those living in sultry cities.
People sunbathe on North Bay Beach in Scarborough. Photo: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
Warmer weather brings more tourists, but there was no celebration among cash-strapped business owners. “These are extremes and I’d rather not have these temperatures,” said John Sr., who owns three restaurants in the city. “It’s a sign of serious global warming and it’s not really a safe environment.”
Conservative-controlled Scarborough Borough Council was one of the first local authorities to declare a climate emergency in 2019. An electric garbage truck began touring the town this week as part of its drive to become carbon neutral by 2030.
Senior, vice chairman of the city’s tourism advisory board, said the industry would need to “re-adjust” to cope with hotter days, perhaps by improving building insulation or installing cooling stations, as seen in hotter climates.
But it was a global emergency that called for world leaders to intervene, he added. “This is a global crisis and it takes courage and it will be difficult.”
RNLI lifeguards on North Bay beach. Photo: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
Global temperatures were falling when Scarborough proclaimed itself Britain’s first seaside resort in the mid-17th century, in the middle of the Little Ice Age. The world has warmed by around 1.1C since the second half of the 18th century, with most of that increase coming since 1975, when the Costa del Sol began to displace Scarborough as the holiday destination of choice for sun-hungry Brits.
Perched on a shady bench overlooking bustling South Bay, Doreen Edmonds, 68, said the record temperatures were a wake-up call to the climate emergency. “Look at the situation in Australia,” she said, referring to the drought and bushfires that engulfed large parts of the country in 2020. “It’s horrific. What future do they have? Some of them will become completely uninhabitable.
Her husband, Peter Edmonds, 87, said he hoped people would now realize the climate crisis was real. “I’ve been worrying about him since the 1960s, and now he’s going home to bed,” he said.
Jen Laffan, 26, a lifeguard with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), said she was braced for another extremely busy summer as more people took local holidays due to a combination of airport disruptions and falling living costs.
Jen Laffan, one of the RNLI lifeguards patrolling North Bay beach in Scarborough. Photo: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
By midday on Monday, it was mercifully quiet for her team. Last summer, RNLI lifeguards recorded 1,833 incidents around North East England.
Keeping a watchful eye on the roughly 1,500 people in North Bay, Laffan said the crowds will start arriving next week when schools break for the summer. “South Bay will be a shock. We’ve already had some major water rescues [this year] and with the warm weather and people choosing to stay, it’s busy.”
While some schools closed due to the heat, others went to the beach. Some of the children from Littleworth Grange Primary School in Barnsley were treated to a day trip to Scarborough on their penultimate day of term.
Their teacher, Megan Lord, made sure the group of 53 Year 6 students were slathered in sunscreen as they built sand castles in the sun. “It’s about eight degrees cooler here than it was in Barnsley,” said Lord, 25. “Being at school would be tough and it’s a treat they need after three years out.”
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