Coastal mansion owners are squabbling with dog walkers and nature lovers after a beach behind their homes was fenced off.
Sandbanks, an affluent suburb on a peninsula by Poole, is jam-packed with million-pound homes, holiday villas and luxury hotels.
Locals have long made the most of living on Dorset’s tail fin, with century-old photographs showing ramblers taking strolls or taking a dip.
Only last month did a dog walker go on Tripadvisor to rave about the beach’s golden sands, calling it the peak of ‘British tranquillity’.
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But it seems some people don’t see the area as tranquil enough after a 40-foot fence was built on one side of the beach’s northern coast.
The fence sits just between a yacht club and the back gardens of a row of mansions in a cul-de-sac called The Horseshoe.
Signs warning ‘Private Beach’ and ‘Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted’ have also popped up.
A security camera with motion sensors has been mounted on the fence of a £3.5million waterfront mansion, the Daily Mail reported.
Members of the Sandbanks Community Group (SCG), which represents residents, say its WhatsApp group chat has been flooded with more than 100 angry messages about the fence.
Sue Spencer, 75, says that in the four decades she’s called Sandbanks home, she’s never had an issue with The Horseshoe homeowners.
Yet, she claimed she was challenged by one while walking along the foreshore last year.
Spencer said: ‘Now it is more people with money who think they can do what they like.’
Another Sandbanks resident said: ‘It is a land grab. It is very oppressive to see that fence here. People think it is a no-go area.’
One of the homes on The Horseshoe is up for sale for £3,750,000. According to its blurb on RightMove, the four-bedroom property is ‘located in a quiet cul-de-sac with private “beach” adjoining the waterfront’.
It adds: ‘The Horseshoe is a small and exclusive enclave of Sandbanks, tucked away in a quiet cul-de-sac and the houses are amongst a select few which can claim to have private sand at the bottom of the garden adjoining the beach.’
Alan Lester, a retired barrister specialising in commercial law and secretary of the SCG, says he has instructed lawyers to take legal action.
Initial talks with homeowners to ensure access to the foreshore have gone nowhere, he said, while Land Registry deeds state that the area from the high water mark to the foreshore below is public.
‘Members of the public are put off from using the foreshore,’ Lester said.
‘What purpose does it serve? It is to give the impression that the other side of it is private. To members of the public, the fence stops you from wanting to go any further.’
He added: ‘Quite often I have been there on a summer’s day and in a 20-minute window I have seen between eight and 14 other people coming and going.
‘Because of the extent it has been used over many, many years, it could be perceived there is a prescriptive right that has been built up by the public to use the foreshore below the mean high watermark.
‘The residents say the fence must come down. They think it is unsightly and is impeding access and putting people off. We also don’t want it to set a precedent.’
None of the homeowners along The Horseshoe provided a comment.
One said he had no idea who pitched the fence or signs, adding: ‘How would you like it if members of the public walked through your back garden?’
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