Skunk-addicted louts & crumbling homes… can UK's 'worst seaside town' turn fortunes around as the 'next Sandbanks'?

11/10/2024 09:38 AM

ON Skegness seafront a chilly wind blows in as dog walkers stroll along the golden sands.

A motionless big wheel dominates the skyline next to an empty pier where couples have attached love locks etched with their names to the railings, a testament to summer romances that are now a distant memory.

On the main stretch, flashing bulbs illuminate offers of 'big cash jackpots' on bingo in an effort to entice the odd tourist brave enough for a winter visit.

The November breeze also carries in something else – the smell of cannabis and skunk.

This is a town plagued by homelessness, drugs and drink and crime problems.

Skegness has been branded a 'vulgar hellhole' boasting "the British library of bad tattoos' and in May Which? Magazine readers voted it bottom in a poll of UK seaside resorts.

Yet it still attracts four million visitors each year who embrace its fun side, echoing a more innocent time depicted in saucy postcards of women wearing bloomers and men in stripy bathing suits.

Now Skegness is being touted as the new Sandbanks, the exclusive Dorset enclave with multi-million pound properties that has attracted footballers and celebrities like Harry Redknapp, pundit Graham Souness, Oasis singer Liam Gallagher and chef Rick Stein.

Investors are said to be snapping up homes amid hopes that a new road linking Skegness to parts of posh Norfolk will transform the fortunes of the faded town.

Property experts say enquiries have "exploded" since developers approached the Government to build an 11-mile road and rail link across The Wash estuary.

The £4billion project could push up house prices by 40 percent as residents from Norfolk – dubbed Chelsea-on-Sea – eye up more affordable housing. 

Buyers can snap up a two-bed bungalow for as little as £50,000 in Skegness while a four-bedroom detached near the beach is currently on sale for £235,000 – around £100,000 less than a property in a similar area in Norfolk.

Carl Smith, of Skegness estate agent HomeMove, said: "We could easily see an increase in prices of 30 to 40 per cent – but the sky's the limit."

Some locals, however, are more sceptical.

One businessman told The Sun: "It's pie in the sky. This project has been talked about for years but nothing has happened."

Others just pray it gets off the ground and brings a much-needed investment into the town with its faded grandeur and crumbling Victorian homes which sit in side streets off the main promenade.

Fading glory

Skegness, the birthplace of Butlins, has been adored by generations of holidaymakers despite its poor reputation. 

At the height of its popularity, before Brits started flying abroad in the 60s and 70s, the town's Jolly Fisherman mascot declared that 'Skegness is so bracing'.

Nowadays locals have to brace themselves in a different sense as it struggles with deep issues.

It might be known for its donkeys, ice cream and candy floss, but the town has got a huge problem with crime and homelessness.

The town has recorded a crime rate of 181 offences per 1,000 residents – more than double the national average of 87.

Drink and drug problems are rife and latest statistics from a Lincolnshire County Council report reveal that in 2020, 210 people landed up in hospital with overdoses.

We saw men staggering from bars while one woman stored a can of cheap cider in the bottle holder of her young baby's buggy, supping it as she walked along.

A gang of three young men stood openly smoking a joint near the front and we spotted at least three tents belonging to homeless people – one outside a shuttered, run down bar on the main drag, one hidden among sand dunes and a third under the pier.

The latter belonged to self-declared ex heroin addict Craig Bowley, 47, who told us: "I moved here from Leicester four months ago to escape mental and physical abuse.

"I'm on a methadone programme and I've been clean for a while but I need to stay here for six months to prove I have a local connection to the place before I have any chance of getting somewhere proper to live.

"I get meals at the Salvation Army and someone from an outreach team comes to check on me once a month.

"There's a good homeless community here. I think it's because Skegness is a good place to hide from your troubles and it's near the sea, which is nice."

Retired Christine Handson, 78, who we met out walking with her grown-up son, said drugs were a huge issue.

She said: "Apparently there are no people officially registered homeless here, yet you can see the tents about.

"At night time you can see drug addicts hanging about the railway station and during the day they queue up outside Boots for their methadone.

"I don't know if a new road bridge over the estuary will help. I can see people from Norfolk might be attracted by cheaper house prices but I don't know if it will revive Skegness itself.”

Migrant clashes

The town has also become a flashpoint for issues around immigration.

Far-right activists staged a 300-strong rally in the town in February 2023 after it was revealed hundreds of asylum seekers were living in hotels and B&Bs.

Hoteliers received more than £1000 a week to close their doors to tourists and house migrants.

Locals claimed many of the hotel bosses who took up the offer didn't live in the town.

In January this year the Government announced it would cut back the number of asylum seekers in Lincolnshire after it emerged 300 were living in Skegness.

Residents claim dozens still live in the area after vanishing from hotels.

One bed and breakfast owner said: "Lots of migrants disappeared from the Government-funded hotels here when they were due to be moved and managed to get rooms in other lodgings.

"The problem is every room they take up is one less for visitors and we're scared the town will get more of a reputation for asylum seekers than tourism. They also tend to stay in the most run down places that are meant to be 'hotels'.

"Many still advertise themselves on Airbnb and Facebook and then when tourists turn up they find themselves sharing with migrants.”

We visited the resort this week, we discovered three men – two from Yemen and one from Syria – living in a dilapidated hotel.

One looked frightened as we asked questions, but insisted he was in Britain legally and gave us a number for their landlord…who lives in Egypt. 

‘Bedsit land’

Unlike neighbouring east coast resorts like Scarborough and Bridlington, very few Victorian properties exist but locals claim those that do have been turned into 'bedsit land' for the unemployed and eastern Europeans.

On run-down Prince Alfred Avenue, where signs advertise cheap flats, a young woman aggressively tells us to "get lost" while an older resident, clearly suffering from mental health issues, begs for help to using new key to get into her home.

Unemployed Tony Smith, 58, is lucky enough to live in a recently renovated grand Victorian building on Rutland Road.

He said: "Loads of the landlords in Skegness don't live here. 

"Rich people in London and West Yorkshire have bought up the bigger houses and rent them out. I'm really lucky to have this place.

"I'd say Skegness has gone downhill in the last few decades. This is the second time I've lived here and in the 90s I had four jobs – shelf-filling, glass collecting and pot washing – but I'm now struggling to find anything.

"Everything is seasonal too, so there's less work in the winter.

"The place is really isolated because there's no main roads in and out of Skegness so a link to Norfolk might open the town up a bit to other areas. It definitely needs investment."

Skegness is situated on the A52 and A158 roads which connect it to Boston, the East Midlands and Lincoln city but every route clogs up in summer with cars backed up for miles trying to get into the resort.

Mum-of-five Claire Ainge-Cross, 40 who runs the Ivydene hotel with her parents, said any move to make Skegness less isolated would benefit the area.

She said: "There's no main dual carriageway in and out and we are a four hour drive from Norfolk even although you can see it over the estuary.

"We love it here. We used to live near a cement works in Coventry and my mum and I both had problems with our chests but I don't even need my inhaler in Skegness because of the sea air.

"The schools here aren't that great and don't have great Ofsted reports, which was an issue for me as a mum but we've managed. 

"I can see why people holiday here because it's such a great place to be."

Sandbanks dream

There's no doubt that Skegness has its problems but most of the locals we spoke to said they still love living there.

The town has an average age of 48, compared to the national average of 40 and mum-of-two Bryony Hay, 24, said she hoped a new rail link would attract more families.

She said: "I had my shed broken into once but, other than that, I've had no issues living here.

"There's loads of stuff to do with the kids and the beaches are great. 

"Some of the Victorian buildings are a bit run down but if we did get the transport link maybe people would buy them and do them up."

Homes in celebrity haven Sandbanks have sold for up to £ 15million.

Support worker Sandra Henderson, 62, hopes any new cash flow into the town will result in better shops.

She said: "I moved here from Coventry in 1983 and I've seen a lot of change in that time.

"There's less to do than there used to be and there's also a lot more charity shops and lots of the lovely little independent boutiques we used to have have disappeared. It would be nice to have them back.

"There used to be a boat across that section of The Wash in the 60s but it was too expensive for people to make daily trips at about £50."

Ex-catering manager Gerry Pepper, 71, and brother Duncan, 62, a retired warehouse worker, rent a flat on the seafront for £550 a month.

Gerry said: "The beaches here are amazing. You can walk 10 miles along lovely clean sand all the way to Mablethorpe.

“There’s plans to extend the pier after part of it was destroyed in a big storm in the 1970s.

"It really is a fantastic place to live. The only thing is that it's a bit isolated and the road system isn't great but that could all change with the new road.

"I can see it really pushing up prices here once people realise what the town has going for it."

While Sandbanks flourishes, it’s hard to see how Skegness, with all its problems, will ever be able to compete – but only time will tell.