The private estate that owns Durdle Door, the popular beauty spot, has raised its car parking charges by 66 per cent, The Telegraph can reveal. Motorists expressed outrage on social media after discovering that the cost of parking at Lulworth Cove on the appeared to have risen dramatically since March. The 12,000-acre Lulworth Estate, which runs the car park and facilities on the five-mile stretch of coastline and is owned by the Weld family, is charging £30 for caravans to park, £20 for all-day parking for cars and £5 for motorbikes.
Online posts from March show it was charging £20 for caravans to park, £12 for all-day parking for cars and £2 for motorbikes. Durdle Door is one of Dorset’s most popular attractions, with some 750,000 visitors to the area every year. The has prompted a backlash from locals, with residents erecting signs saying “go home” at the peak of numbers during the Covid lockdown.
In 2021, Lulworth Estate called on the Government to impose a code of behaviour after it said visitors had mistreated the area. The council rolled out measures to curb anti-social behaviour in Dorset the same year, including a ban on beach camping. Similar frustrations , where tourists were accused of littering, illegal parking and anti-social behaviour.
One user on TripAdvisor said the car parking charges for Durdle Door were “a rip-off”. “They’ve got you once you’ve planned your day and arrived,” said the user, posting under the name “Caroline”. Anot.