A "FURIOUS" Southend councillor has hit out at the Government and tourists as the central seafront is overwhelmed by visitors during the coronavirus lockdown.

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Martin Terry, councillor responsible for community safety and customer contact has been left seething as tourists from London have packed out the town's central seafront.

Tourists, primarily from London, are said to be overwhelming the seafront and ignoring social distancing measures put in place by the government to take advantage of the warm weather.

Mr Terry said: “I have to say, I’m furious. We’ve simply been overwhelmed, and the central seafront is absolutely packed.

“I honestly cant believe the ignorance of people. We’ve got our NHS staff making sacrifices to keep everyone safe and healthy and then we have a bunch of Londoners come up and ignore all social distancing.

“We cant handle this as a town. It’s selfishness and I know there are some facilities open down there and they acting as a sort of magnet for these people."

The council, like many other seaside towns across the UK have been appealing to the government for support and advise during this difficult time.

However, so far Southend Council haven't heard anything from the government.

Mr Terry added: "We have community safety officers down there and when they’ve asked people were they’re from they all said they were from London.

“We’ve reached out to the government for advice but we’ve heard nothing.

"The government has got to be clear about places like Southend. It needs to be clear and robust about what it is going to do to help us.

"Our primary concern here is stopping the spread of Covid-19. Maybe we need a more robust approach to enforcing social distancing with things like road closures and increased fines because the advisory approach is just not working."