While on holiday in south Devon the other week the weather forecasts were never great, but thankfully they often proved unreliable, as on the day we visited Salcombe and enjoyed a walk along the Kingsbridge estuary.

It was hot that day (by UK standards, that is) and when looking across the estuary to little beaches like the one shown above, bathed in sunshine, with beautiful clean sand against a backdrop of lush vegetation, with the occasional yacht sailing by in the foreground, you could almost imagine that you were somewhere tropical!

Properties along this coast reach silly prices due to the beautiful location, with Salcombe apparently having one of the highest average property prices in the UK. The sad truth is that once an area acquires that sort of status, the local economy suffers as young people with local roots can’t afford to stay in the area, and the owners of the properties are often absent for much of the year, and even when they are present, they have little need for the local shops and services. Thus those local amenities are gradually pushed out of business by dropping trade and those that remain become almost totally dependent on the brief influx of summer tourists to see them through.

Not everything is great in paradise.