Naturists lose their fight to go naked on the beaches
The right to wander bare in the North Sea chill was hard won. But the climate has changed, reports Jonathan Brown
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It was Winston Churchill who roused the nation's determination when he vowed to fight on the beaches to maintain the basic freedoms of this island race. Now Britain's army of naturists find themselves battling on the sandy and shingled margins to protect a cherished way of life.
They have issued a war cry – claiming they are suffering unlawful and discriminatory treatment – following news that Britain's longest-serving nudist beach in Corton, near Lowestoft, is to be shut because of coastal erosion. Waveney District Council confirmed yesterday that the area would be "de-designated" from November following a consultation.
The announcement that one of the last 10 remaining official naturist beaches is to disappear comes just days after nudists were urged to ignore warnings that they face prosecution should they continue to use a stretch of sand near Bridlington, East Yorkshire ,which has been a popular destination for sun clubs and naked bathers for decades.
Andrew Welch of British Naturism, which has 11,000 members and represents the interests of an estimated 1.5 million practising nudists, believes that what is essentially a healthy and harmless pastime is under attack from a culture which discriminates against them. He insists that anyone wishing to strip off in public is not doing anything wrong according to the law and that heavy-handed authorities are in the vanguard of a general crackdown on the pursuit.
"We don't want to get on our high horse about this but we are a group that is being discriminated against. If we were an ethnic or religious group this sort of thing would never happen," said the 44-year-old marketing consultant, a naturist of 20 years' standing. "A council does not have the legal authority to ban naturists. Our challenge is the culture. The law is on our side," he added.
The naturist colony in Corton was founded in the mid-1970s when the village could boast a long sandy stretch of beach. Since then, the pummelling effects of wind and wave have seen 80 per cent of the beach space given up to the North Sea.
A spokesman for Waveney District Council said the loss meant it was time for the nudists to move on. "The communities of Corton and the visitors to this area have little or no beach to access, without entering the designated naturist area," the spokesman said.
Engineer Malcolm Boura, 55, who opposes the change, believes the council is determined to do away with the beach and that naturists would continue to flout the change in status. "We expect that people will keep using it and that it will continue to be a source of friction and bad feeling for a long time," he said.
The de-designation row mirrors the tussle in Yorkshire where supporters hoped to continue to enjoy the elements amid the splendour of the Lord's own county. For years, up to 50 people have gathered at a time on Fraisthorpe Beach to enjoy the wind on their back and pretty much everywhere else amid the solitude of the sandy stretch in Bridlington Bay. But the East Riding of Yorkshire Council's determination to end the practice has sparked a simmering row and even a lie-down protest by members of the protest group Fraisthorpe United Naturists (FUN).
The beach was designated for naked use in the 1990s but this was overturned apparently after the council received complaints from locals. Since then the place has become a hangout for people having sex. Meetings with police and the council have however failed to dispel the central gripe of the naturists who for much of their recent history have been congregated on designated nudist beaches though they are not legally compelled to do so. This, explained Mr Welch, is because devotees of the al fresco pursuit, are determined their actions are not misconstrued as sexual or aggressive, so they prefer to stick to the designated sites available to them in the UK.
It is a problem not confined to beaches either. In Hertfordshire a naked bathing group faced losing the right to swim at a public pool after a refurbishment and was only reprieved after changes were made to accommodate a muslim ladies' swimming club meant health and safety concerns were satisfied. And it is not just in this country either. In Switzerland, voters in the tiny Alpine canton of Appenzell Inner Rhodes this weekend voted to impose £120 fines on "boots-only" hikers, most of them German, who have begun lapping up the area's splendid scenery.
According to Mr Welch, naturists are like any other group, they like to be together. "We are a bit like motorcyclists, rock climbers or heavy metal fans in that we like to mix with like-minded people. Yes, we are a minority but naturism is not on the fringes of society like it used to be. There is more nudity on TV and people are far more free and easy about themselves. Everyone works so hard, cooped up with air-conditioning and fluorescent lighting that they want to get out there. Being naked is good for you as a human being," he said.
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Comments
Perhaps if their was more real nudism this country would not have so many people with eating disorder and other self image problems caused by comparing their mortal bodies with the sculpted by starvation and surgery perfect bodies of the 'Celebs'
All this fuss over a few square inches of nylon.... underneath lay 2 versions (with many slight variations) of the same body why can't the Moral Minority get over it?
Have God and some shame in your lives, instead of living like animals.
I'd rather not look at another man's wrinkly nadgers on the beach or anywhere else, but it doesn't hurt me so I'll defend his right to an all-over tan - and admire the confidence of naturists to bare all!
FACT:
Having met nudists from around the world, I know of no nudist who would make an exhibition of making love.. or of nudity. The whole ethos is of freedom and fresh air.
FACT:
Nudism has always been practiced by people who swim. It is only in recent years, with greater affluence, and the sad influence of fashion designers that people have worn clothing to swim and sunbathe. And look at the overpriced rubbish they wear!
FACT:
Nudists, merely follow the practice of centuries. (A bit like the churches really.. and the State?)
FACT:
Nudists are peaceful, pleasant people, who want to relax in the sun often with their whole family, a difficult enough proposition in a country with our weather - which does not need to be ruined by bigots.
I was involved many years ago, in gaining many of these beaches, by making formal requests to Councils. The reason why they were asked to officially designate areas for naked sunbathing was because of the prejudice which was beginning to make life unbearable for families of nudists who wanted to sunbathe. The idea was readily picked up by Councils, who designated - officially - areas which had always been used for naked swimming and sunbathing anyway, for centuries.
FACT:
Naturists paid for the signs.
FACT:
No-one else was deliberately denied the use of that same area of public beach, but they were made aware that people might be taking all of their clothes off to swim and sunbathe. In general people found that a very acceptable solution. And it still is.
FACT:
In Scotland Cunninghame District Council designated three beaches. Gailes Shore, was officially opened by the Chairman of the Council. Later two of those beaches were undesignated for no better reason than that the ScotsNats were swept away by Labour in the next election. A petition was raised -readily gathering a very large number of signatures, but that made no difference to this determined Labour Group. Local people were overwhelmingly in favour of the nudist beaches continuing both at Gailes Shore and Ardeer, since they also used those beaches, some of them being nudists and the rest not minding naked bodies.
FACT;
There are very few nudist beaches in the UK, where people do not have to fear prosecution for sunbathing with their families.
FACT:
Those beaches - and those along rest of our very long coastline - are also open to everyone.
So what is the problem?
I believe that nudism has been used as a political plaything by politicallly motivated adults on the Councils, who should really know better.
Is a naked body really more sexually frightening than the peek-a-boo fashion of the overpriced bikini, which deliberately aims the onlookers' eyes to certain parts of the now-fashionable anatomy?
This year a buttock, next year a breast, the following year a navel. We really are a sad little country,
Can I suggest that nudists need now to insist on their rights as Local Council taxpayers - attend Council meetings where necessary - which they have every right to do - and protest long and loud, about being discriminated against by politically motivated ignoramuses, whose attitude is keeping our country in the Dark Ages?
Perhaps those who object to nudism might like to consider: that we are all naked under our clothes - and that close-minded bigots, have remarkably unhealthy thoughts.
Pity really, and there's a parking charge the council won't be getting from me.
My wife & I are still together & our children have no hangups about nudity but (as far as I am aware) don't appear naked in public.
I went on naturist beaches with my family as a child and don't have any problems, nor does any other naturist who was used to the environment from an early age. Just because a family who was naturist happens to be disfunctional doesn't mean every naturist family is or indeed that textile families are all completely repressed and intolerant.
In the UK our attitudes are supposedly still that of the sexualy repressed , single sex private school types. Their deviance is projected through the mass mediia with all the maturity toward the nude one might expect from an eleven year old schoolboy, who kept apart from the opposite sex might have. (my own eleven year old not included, as he knows better).
I know both male and female from such a background who concede as much. Having admitted the difficulty even at a later age in overcoming such poor attitudes to nudity and sex. Ask fellow member Rowan Pelling about her difficulty initialy in seperating the naked from the sexual. She has written about it already in your pages
What this represive behaviour leads to unfortunately is the state we have now where thousands of paedophiles/ deviants are embedded in the institutions at all levels, all over the UK.
It says much about the UK, that we look to Nazi-banker , "We're not part of the world" state Switzerland, for comparible behaviour.
The only problem I can see, is that if nudity is allowed to go unchecked, then the power to protest naked will become ineffectual.
Fraisthorpe used to be a great venue, until touroids started to hire boats from the nearby harbour and cruise the beach, shouting at the people quietly enjoying the sunshine au naturel, "Dirty bastards". Obviously it takes one to know one ...
I have said this and I will say this again. UK is a snob. First, we tell the teachers to teach the sex to the students so they do not walk the wrong path. Read the same paper on teaching sex. The when they move naked we stop them them. I agree walking like Tarzan or just in coconut leaves is not good but the nudity has no place in the decent atmosphere. We do not want to see these as we them in net. If the nudes want more sunshine they may go where the sun is, is caught and locked for 15 days. That is the Muslim law.
I thank you
Firozali A. Mulla
Have we become so oppressive in Britain, that we want to control every citizen, every minute?
If nudity offends you there are hundreds of other beaches to visit (most with bikinis and tangas),
topless is the norm across most of Europe.
The double standards of permitting the advertising industry to exploit us with nudity daily, and then state that nudity on beaches is offensive, sums up our warped logic.
If and when they are brought before the courts, they will be found not guilty and eventually nudism will gain the freedom it feels is missing.
We must use our freedom, not be confined by ever-increasing restrictions. This applies to all matters of freedom - it must be defended.
Where I don't agree with some naturists is that they want exclusive use of public areas and some of them object to those who do not share their preferences. Also I am sure that it is not true that all naturists wish to be with like minded people, just as I am sure that not all motor cyclists wish to be with other motor cyclists or all plumbers wish to spend their leisure time with other plumbers.
What's next on the aganda? what are you planning to do? nudists schools, shooping centres, parliment, sport church... etc
Nudism & homosexuality were illegal before & then they become legal so now I am leaving the country before they take over & force every body to follow their footsteps
What a nasty, arrogant, intolerant little man you are.
Also your 'facts' are wrong. The closing of at least two naturist beaches is exactly the opposite of the nudist takeover you claim is happening.
The problem is we are in a sex-dominated society. This is why there are such misguided priorities, MrBuns.
I would astimate that about 80-85% of the british population is fundamentally perverted. This element represents most of the "textilian" clothes-wearing community. Just look at the discos, the pubs, the sex-shop department stores.
These are the people who cannot contemplate nudity without thinking of sex. One can guess what is on their collective mind when they are bathing the children. Which is interesting, as the number of convicted child abusers from textile wearing society is statistically extremely high pro rata compared with nudist society. We are where children are safe!
I suppose the reason for all this is that we naturists always have our "tackle" out, therefore we think nothing of it. It is less important to us than our arms, legs and head. Textilians however have their equipment encased for large periods so that, when it gets a few minutes airing, they feel compelled to use it for whatever unruly act they can manage.
Textilians are ashamed to show their bodies. Why? Simply because they know the truth about their single-track minds about nudity and where their carnal priorities lie. Clothes mask a well-earned guilty conscience.
Personally I do not want the nudist community to expand. At the moment we are safe away from the perverts, abusers and criminals who abound textilian society. You can recognise a textilian ringer in a fog. As soon as the kit is off, he/she is an instant "swinger". We would rather the filth stayed out of our community. Right now, we can leave our money on our towels. We can let our kids roam. We can allow our females down the beach alone. On the "other side" our children and women cannot be let out in full battle dress!
We do not want to share textilian beaches and their immoralities. Just let is have our own designated naturist areas where our children and women are safe. We will continue to live our healthy moralistic lives. We wont bother you lot. We won't even come near you.
We don't know what we might catch, lol!
Sorry, that bit was a joke! But only that bit!