The Plage de Pampelonne, the three-mile playground of the celebrities who descend on St Tropez each summer, is about to get even more exclusive. Out of concern for environmental issues, Ronald Bruno, mayor of Ramatuelle, has ordered the clubs and restaurants that have mushroomed along the beach to take up less space, hire out far fewer sunbeds, take down their structures in the winter – and, in a few cases, close altogether. The mayor says a reduction is needed to halt the erosion of the dunes behind the beach.

The impact on one of Europe’s most popular beaches will be considerable. On busy days in July and August barely one-third of the 12,000 visitors who arrive on its public stretches in search of a sunbed can find one. Under Mr Bruno’s plan the number of sunbeds will be cut back from 4,230 to 2,600. At the moment 130,000 meals are consumed in August alone at the beach’s bars and restaurants, but five out of 27 are expected to close.

Pampelonne – where American forces began the invasion of southern France in August 1944 – began to catch on as a trendy summer venue in the mid-1950s. The sophisticated Club 55 had only just opened there when Brigitte Bardot hit the headlines and St Tropez and its beaches quickly became the Riviera’s most sought-after destination. Since then, beachfront trade has mushroomed, with restaurants and bars now rubbing shoulders with popular music venues and exclusive clubs. Most beachfront properties have an area for sunbeds and parasols on the beach and parking places on the dunes behind.

The restaurant owners and local residents are fighting back against a plan they claim will take €8 million (£6.8m) a year out of the local economy and put 200 workers out of work. Their case was recently put to the Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development in Paris but was rejected. They have now put up posters denouncing the cutbacks as “incoherent”, and tourists arriving at Pampelonne over the next two months will be urged to sign petitions.

This is not the first dispute over Pampelonne. Last time the boot was on the other foot as local residents tried in vain to close the helipad used by wealthy visitors who wished to avoid the traffic-laden coastal roads.

Despite the protests, there seems little doubt that by next summer Pampelonne will not be quite the same.