Dorset Council is to act after the incidents at Durdle Door – with traffic management measures implemented for events such as Camp Bestival being considered for the area.

A spokesman said: “In the main across the Dorset Council area at the weekend, visitor levels were manageable with people generally observing social distancing.

“However, we did see some extremely disappointing behaviour from visitors to Dorset’s beaches. There have been issues in popular destinations with littering, people urinating and defecating in public, people camping overnight and people having dangerous campfires and BBQs – despite extensive warnings against this from all local agencies.

“The incidents at Durdle Door on Saturday placed a huge strain on our emergency services. We were very disappointed to have seen the huge number of visitors ignoring manned road blocks. Council employees were abused by the members of the public as they tried to manage the traffic. This is not acceptable.

“We are meeting with stakeholders this week, including MPs, landowners and police to agree a plan which we hope will help manage the huge visitor numbers to the Lulworth area. One of the options is to treat each day as we would a major event, which might include measures like traffic management and marshalling around the local area."

The spokesman added: “Our strong message for many weeks has been to ask people to think twice before visiting Dorset. We’re asking people to be respectful of our communities and not to litter, camp overnight or use disposable BBQs. We would strongly urge visitors to avoid the Lulworth area and be prepared for it to be very busy if they do come. We are working with the Police to increase enforcement of no overnight campers from tomorrow.”