The spot could hardly be more idyllic. A Cornish creek fringed by apple trees where boats bob at high tide and dogs and children frolic in the mud at low.
But there is trouble in the parish of Feock after a string of acts of vandalism aimed at those bobbing boats led to a wave of anger, fear and suspicion.
Some of the victims blame second-home owners and “incomers” – those who have arrived in the last few years in search of the good life – claiming some of them are not keen on the sight and sounds of “local” people’s vessels moored in the creek.
The police are investigating and the saga has focused attention on the tricky issue of second-home owners and new arrivals, especially given the exit from cities that the Covid crisis has caused, making homes unaffordable for most locally born people.
“This place isn’t what it was,” said John Carnon, a roofer working on his small motorboat in Penpol Creek, just south of Truro. “I’ve been coming here for 30 years but now there are people who have moved in with loads of money who think they own everything.”
Carnon said his boat had been targeted. “The hull was damaged from front to back.”
He said the moorings of another vessel were recently freed, allowing it to drift out to sea. A canoe and paddleboard have also been reported missing, adding to the sense that something is amiss.
Then came an attack on the boat owned by Mike Bastian, a 67-year-old oyster fisher, Cornish born and bred, who works the creeks and the estuary.
At the end of March the oyster fishing season ends and Bastian planned to store his old wooden sailing working boat on Penpol Creek for safekeeping over the summer. However, earlier this month at low tide, someone dug the anchor out from the mud and unbolted a support. The boat fell on its side and risked being swamped by water when the tide came in.
A neighbour rang Bastian and he, a family member and friends managed to carry out a 3am rescue to save the boat.
A relative told the tale in a social media post that made headlines and said it exposed a “divide between local people and those who buy into a Cornish life”. She added: “No wonder the Cornish learn to hate the wealthy who come down and buy their dream home in our lovely county.”
Bastian, who lives inland, is still reeling. “I feel I’ve been driven off the beach,” he said. “It went down with a wham. It’s disgusting, shocking that anyone could do that – real thuggery. There are signs saying it is a public beach but people with money come in and think they own the lot. I had to move the boat. I wouldn’t have had any peace of mind otherwise.”
It is not just in Feock where tensions over second homes and incomers are rising. Not far away, in St Agnes, a former police officer, Steve Ridholls, has put up a sign reading: “No more second homes (our village is dying!!).”
“Houses rarely come up for sale in St Agnes and they are gone in minutes,” he said. “Second-home owners come swanning down as if they own the place. If they intend to live here permanently, crack on and get involved. But it does my head in that some buy and leave their homes empty for most of the year. I can’t afford to buy here – I have to rent.”
A little further west in Hayle, a letting agent, Deborah Plowright, caused a stir after describing her anguish at having to turn away locals because they were being priced out. She said that for every advertised two-bedroom terrace house in the town, the agency received about 100 inquiries within two days.
Dick Cole, the leader of the Cornish nationalist party Mebyon Kernow, said local control over all aspects of housing and planning were needed. “Homes are on the market for ridiculous prices,” he said. “We need to find a mechanism that allows people to live in their own communities and protect the fabric of those communities.”
The former St Ives MP Andrew George, who now runs a charitable trust that works to address housing needs, said: “The market – for both sale and rent – operates as if locals had no right to live here. The system rewards property investors, big developers and land value speculators but severely penalises those who simply seek a decent, secure and genuinely affordable home.”
Back in Feock, where million-pound-plus homes are commonplace, a local boat business owner – who asked not to be named – described his problems with neighbours who complained that his comings and goings disturbed their peace.
“People have worked these creeks and estuaries for hundreds of years,” he said. “The ones who complain about the boats are the same ones who would move next to a village church and then complain about the bells ringing.”