Coastguard tries to 'ban' digging holes! Families at popular Cornwall beach ordered to stop great British summer tradition after 8ft trench had to be filled in by a digger

•  Locals near Padstow in Cornwall told HM Coastguard to 'get a grip' over move

HM coastguard has been blasted for trying to ban families digging holes at a popular Cornish beach.  

Locals living near posh Padstow in Cornwall told the crews to 'get a grip' after they complained about a phantom digger on Facebook.

HM Coastguard Padstow said the crater, carved out in Tregirls beach, was dangerous as it could collapse on beach goers.

Coastguard crews called out a local farmer to fill in the crater with a digger. 

But the move has been slammed as health and safety gone mad by some residents who told the Coastguard to leave beachgoers alone.

One fumed to MailOnline: 'You'd think these people had never been to the beach before, they'll be banning buckets and spades next. We all need to get a grip.'

The man added:  'Somebody dug a hole on a quiet beach? So what? I can't believe the emergency services would even care, let alone fill it in and tell people off.'

The phantom digger carved out the 8ft deep and 9ft wide hole by hand - moving around nine tonnes of sand in the process last weekend.

The coastguard called in TV farmer Charlie Watson Smyth who owns Padstow Farm and lives locally to fill in the hole using a telehandler.

Mr Watson Smyth told MailOnline: 'It's quite bizarre, people are always digging holes in the sand but I have never seen anything on this scale.

'It was perfectly round and looked as if it was dug by something mechanical, they made it look as if it's been drilled out but it wasn't.

'If you think of the effort involved, you have to ask why? And nobody seems to know anything about it.

'Usually things get out and somebody knows but not this time, it's a mystery.'

But while some locals thought the coastguard was overreacting, others were not impressed.

Giorgia Guy, 56, from Wadebridge, Cornwall, said: 'Somebody must've spent hours digging it then to just get up and go home and leave it is so selfish and reckless.

'People have died from falling into holes dug on the beach, or what if it had collapsed in on somebody, whoever was responsible would have that on their conscience for the rest of their lives.'

In July 2021 an 18-year-old boy had to be dug out of the sand on Fistral Beach, Newquay by the emergency services after a hole, which he had dug, collapsed on top of him.

And, in 2005, three-year-old Abbie Livingstone-Nurse died when she jumped into a 5ft deep sand hole dug by her stepbrother on Towans Beach, Hayle.

An HM Coastguard Padstow spokesman said: 'We are aware of the large hole that has been dug on Tregirls Beach and the danger this presents to the general public. We have arranged for a local farmer to fill it in using a telehandler.

'This particular hole is approximately 9 feet wide and 8 feet deep and had been dug by hand. The potential for it to cause injury to the unwary, or to collapse in on children exploring it should not be underestimated. Sand hole collapses can cause fatalities.

'Please do not dig holes like this on our (or any other) beaches, and fill in any small ones that your children dig before you leave.

'The fact that a telehandler is required to fill this particular one in speaks volumes about the danger it presents.'