VISITORS heading to Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove are being urged to act responsibly and with respect ahead of the busy weekend.

As temperatures begin to rise with reports of a mini-heatwave on the cards in the coming weeks, the south coast is beginning to brace itself for an influx of visitors.

Last year a sudden increase in visitors to Durdle Door led to ‘environmental degradation that has never been experienced’ at the World Heritage Site and The Lulworth Estate are determined to avoid any such scenes this year.

James Weld from The Lulworth Estate said: “ With a likely warm summer weekend, the Lulworth Estate has been putting in place a number of measures to ensure our visitors enjoy themselves whilst treating our countryside and World heritage Site with the respect it deserves.

“We understand that as visitors begin to flock to the coast again, many may not be aware of the countryside code and how they can look after our countryside and coastal environment.

“We are asking our guests to make sure they take their rubbish away from the beach, use the bins provided in the car parks, or better still, take it home with them.

“Hopefully visitors will respect the recent Dorset-wide barbeque ban in high risk fire areas, and not put our sensitive grassland areas at risk, which includes fires on the beach.

“We are also asking that visitors be mindful of the natural environment, high cliffs which shed rocks from time to time, taking care when swimming and being aware that a relatively remote location means emergency services have a harder job dealing with incidents.

“The emergency services will be busy this weekend as the school holidays begin and we would be delighted, if they were not needed at Durdle Door or Lulworth Cove.”

The estate’s Respect, Protect, Collect campaign that was started last year has been built upon, with visitors now being engaged on entry to Durdle Door through extra signage and staff, including beach wardens and by providing bin bags.

Laura Miller, Dorset councillor for West Purbeck, said: “We have worked hard all year to prepare for this season, with the Lulworth Estate and emergency services colleagues working alongside our highways officers.

“We have good plans in place and would ask visitors to enjoy our lovely place, and respect it by not littering and behaving considerately.”