THIS was the astonishing scene which greeted a resident of the visitor deluged Lake District during an early morning dog walk.
The 48-year-old mum-of-two was out with her puppy at around 6-30am in Portinscale, near Keswick, when she spotted two men sleeping on the roof of a Mercedes car parked within a lay-by in the picturesque village.
“It’s actually two blokes on the roof and two people inside as well,” said the businesswoman. “I couldn’t quite believe it. They were big blokes on top of this car. There was a girl in the passenger seat and another bloke in the driver’s seat. It was really early in the morning and I kind of had to do a bit of a double-take.”
The group, she said, also left “huge bags of rubbish” when they departed shortly after this shot was taken.
“I rang the police but unfortunately because they hadn’t done anything wrong – apparently you can sleep on your car wherever you want – and hadn’t committed an offence there was nothing the police could do about it,” said the woman.
“I think it just typifies, for me, what’s going on at the moment in that people are coming to the Lakes, presumably without accommodation arranged and are then finding themselves in situations where they haven’t anywhere to stay.”
“Certainly in the years we’ve been here it’s so much busier than normal,” she added, speaking before a Borrowdale valley camp site opted to close because of loutish behaviour and excess litter. “We fully understand that people want to come and visit – but do it in a way that is mindful and understanding of the circumstances around you which are not set up for hundreds and hundreds of cars; they’re not set up for people leaving litter everywhere because we don’t have the resources for it to be picked up.”
