Monday 14th April 2025 - Discouraging Tourists, No Further News and Russians

For a council which encourages tourism, North Norfolk District Council (NNDC) are working towards discouraging tourists from visiting the area.  From 1st April, the car parking charges increased.  Here in Overstrand, the charge for a day, or to be precise twenty-four hours, has increased by £2.50 to £11.  I think this is a bit steep to expect people, especially families, to have to stomp this amount, just to park their vehicle.  We already have a problem in the village with visitors parking, blocking spaces used regularly by residents, and now with the increase in parking charges, it looks as though it’s going to get worse.  With costs shooting up, on so many items and services, I certainly don’t blame visitors looking to find a parking space; one which won’t incur a cost.  NNDC are also looking to increase their income by putting up points on Cromer Pier where visitors can make a donation.  They estimate these will yield £5,000 per month.  I wonder what they plan to use this anticipated extra £60,000 a year on.  NNDC are behind the closure of the Tourist Information Centre, near The Meadows car park in Cromer.  The property is now up for let, maybe it will end up as yet another café or charity shop – just what Cromer needs!  It’s certainly a crazy world we are currently living in and NNDC most certainly seem to have jumped on the bandwagon. 

Still with NNDC, there is no further news on when and how they are planning to sort the problem along the promenade.  All has gone quiet, so quiet I wonder if they have withdrawn from their initial plans for works.  Coastal Engineer Rob Goodliffe will be at the Annual Parish Meeting next week, so maybe he will take this opportunity to update villagers.

Let’s move on.  I have so enjoyed watching our garden come to life, over the past few weeks.  Plants, dormant below the surface of the soil, have made an appearance, others are budding up ready to flower.  I’ve been particularly impressed with a pulmonaria I purchased last year.  This has grown and grown and is now in full flower and adored by the bees.  I love to hear their buzzing, as they move from bloom to bloom, when I walk along the garden path.  We have quite a number of bee flies which never fail to grab my attention, as they hover; their proboscis in the depths of a bloom.  We’ve had a problem with the pigeons pulling off the blossom on our greengage tree.  Starting at the top, they were gradually working down to the lower branches.  Fortunately, we have plenty of netting and although not the easiest thing to do, we managed to cover most of the branches and since then the pigeons have ignored the tree.  

I said in my last blog I would tell you about the Russians in the village.  We spotted them while walking on the cliff top.  I’ve never seen them before – Russian comfrey.  Not the white flowers we associate with comfrey, whose leaves make a wonderful but pungent liquid fertiliser.  The Russian comfrey flowers, as you can see from the photo below, are purple and blue.  I wondered where they originated from.  After looking on the internet I found Wikipedia explains all.