Coaches dump hordes of visitors outside Cotswolds homes to take photos and run over locals leaving them with ‘broken legs’, residents have claimed.

Villagers say their roads are crammed with head-to-tail cars and massive coaches depositing huge crowds of holidaymakers.

The picturesque countryside and quaint cottages have long attracted visitors from far and wide, but lately locals have been tormented and abused as a result.

Those living in Bourton-on-the-Water – known as the ‘Venice of the Cotswolds’ – and Bibury say ‘inconsiderate’ coach drivers are parking on double yellow lines and blocking the roads.

One local even said several people have been hit by coaches, ‘resulting in broken arms and legs’. 

And a woman was told to ‘f*** off’ by a coach driver blocking her way while she was trying to make her way home on the Bank Holiday weekend.

Frustrated owners of gorgeous stone cottages are furious and claim coaches stop in the middle of the road to dump tourists outside of their doors.

They then line up and take photographs outside of people’s homes before moving on, in what one shocked resident called ‘extraordinary’.

A mother in her mid-40s attempted to drive her car across a bridge in Bibury in order to get home but said her her path was blocked by a huge coach full of tourists being dropped off.

She was with her son, Jake Miles, 21, who said: ‘Mum was trying to get across the bridge but there just was not enough room and the coach driver was unwilling to move. 

‘When Mum asked him to back up or go forward, he got out of the coach and walked over to our car in a very threatening manner and said to my mum ‘Why don’t you f*** off?’.

‘It was a really scary situation for my mother, but there was nothing we could do. 

‘This guy was a bully. In the end we had to wait about 20 minutes before we could move off.

‘Unfortunately, it’s like that all the time here now. We get coach-loads of tourists clogging up the village every single day of the year. It sometimes takes 40 minutes to drive from one end of the village to the other.’

Jake, who works behind the bar of local hotel The Swan, said locals don’t even benefit financially from the influx of tourists.

‘Almost all of the businesses here are around by big companies based outside the area. Our hotel is owned by Fullers brewery in London and the trout farm which brings in a lot of visitors is owned by a multi-millionaire who doesn’t live round here.

‘So the money they spend in the area does not stay in the area and that is a shame.

‘The roads are totally congested with traffic parked up anywhere motorists can find a space, making it dangerous for people walking through the village. I regularly see people with children in pushchairs having to navigate their way along the road with cars just inches away.

‘Several people have been hit by coaches, resulting in broken arms and legs.

‘The police had to come out over the bank holiday because so many people were parked on double yellow lines.

‘They were moving cars wherever they could. It is getting ridiculous.’

His boss at the hotel, Valentina Pavel, who is an assistant manager, said ‘I’ve had guests arriving completely stressed out and upset because they’ve been unable to find anywhere to park within a mile of the hotel, so they’ve had to carry their suitcases all of that distance.

‘They arrive absolutely exhausted and fed up and that is not the experience we want to give them. But there is nowhere to park. Perhaps the council could find some land nearby for a decent car park and that would at least take away some of the problem.’

Teacher Sarah, 27, and her sister, Martha, a 25 year old recruitment worker, said they were left dumbfounded by the sight of dozens of overseas tourists to Bibury clambering off a coach so they could grab photographs of locals’ homes and front gardens.

Sarah said: ‘The coach pulled up in the middle of the road because there was nowhere to park, opened the door and everybody flooded out, cameras in hand, and they were literally standing there taking photographs of each other in front of people’s houses. It was extraordinary.

‘I get that they perhaps come from places where people don’t have these lovely traditional stone cottages and front gardens, but it is causing chaos in this beautiful village. Surely they can find somewhere to park the coaches and cars so they don’t have to pull up in the street.’

In nearby Bourton-on-the-Water, nicknamed the Venice of the Cotswolds, tempers are also getting frayed as the beginning of summer sees an explosion in tourist numbers. 

Locals say they are fed up with people parking outside their homes and many have resorted to putting up signage outside their properties demanding they park elsewhere.

One local, 80-year-old Anthony White, lived for many years in San Francisco, but says the noise and congestion caused by visitors to Bourton is worse than anything he experienced in the West Coast American city, where he worked as a developer.

He said: ‘Since I moved here a couple of years ago, I’ve been shocked and increasingly concerned by the horrendous effects of over tourism here.

‘It can be so noisy, not just because of the traffic, but also the people walking along in huge groups past our house making so much noise. They just don’t care. 

‘Streams of people walk past here in groups of up to a dozen at all times of the day and night and I really feel something needs to be done to restrict numbers.

‘Perhaps we should implement a tax for visitors like they do in the real Venice.’

And electrician Paul Robbins, 64, said he too has had enough of the crowds pouring into the area. 

He said: ‘The Chamber of Commerce needs to put its hand in its pocket and fork out for a decent car park on the industrial estate up the road. That would keep the traffic out of the village, and make it much more pleasant for everybody.

‘In terms of the economy, obviously the tourists are a fantastic benefit and I’m not for a moment suggesting we should stop them coming. We’ve just got to deal with the road traffic it generates better than we are’

However, Sarah, 59, thinks people should ‘stop moaning’.

She said she moved to the village last year from Brentwood, Essex, so she could be near her son, who works in Bourton.

She said: ‘Yes, there are a lot of tourists here, but really I think people should stop moaning about it and enjoy the economic benefits they bring in.

‘That said, I do think we need to find better way of dealing with all the traffic problems we have as a result of the tourism and I think it’s time a bigger and better car park was built on the outskirts. I think that would please everybody here.’

Parish and district councillor Jon Wareing says Bourton-On-The-Water is buckling under the weight of an ever increasing number of daytrippers.

He said a visitor recently threatened one of his neighbours after being asked not to park on his drive.

‘People can spend an hour in their car, driving around. Some of the ”difficult” behaviour that follows is because they get frustrated.

‘One of my neighbours asked this person not to park on his property and got threatened with violence. He said he knew where they lived if they did anything to his car and threatened to throw a brick through their window.’

Parking for coaches in the village has become more difficult after a privately owned area they had been allowed to use was withdrawn.

The parish council is now considering banning coaches from central parts of the village to try to ease traffic congestion.