My family and I go away for a few weeks holiday, only to return to a Whitstable besieged by yobs terrorising visitors and residents alike; according to the local papers collected on my return. What is the world coming too? I know I mention Londoners coming down to sleepy old Whitstable and buying into the local property market, but it's happening all over the country where property is located in picturesque locations and where prices viewed from a London market are still value for money. But that does not give the indigenous population the right to intimidate visitors with knuckle dusters and knives or to use their cars as weapons. I hope for everyone's sake the culprits are caught before Whitstable gets written off by the London press as ‘Little Beirut'.
The local economy needs visitors. What's the point in building a visitors centre when you have driven the visitors away?
Some people still come to Whitstable for the seafood, some for the unspoilt views across the estuary and others like the film crew that called me the other day; to make use of the unique backdrop of Whitstable harbour for a new BBC production ‘Dunkirk’.
The props guy's were busy trying to hide signs of the latter part of the 20th century for a production based during the 2nd world war, and the exploits of the small craft that were commandeered into service in the Normandy evacuation.
Filming starts on ‘Dunkirk’ Monday (15/09/03), and continues into Tuesday.
