A proposal by the mayor of the Belgian seaside resort of Ostend for locals to get priority beach passes this summer to ensure physical distancing has ignited claims of discrimination and a debate about access to the coastline.

The Belgian government outlined a plan to gradually lift its coronavirus lockdown last week, but with holidays abroad likely to remain impossible, the burgemeester Bart Tommelein has received tentative backing from the government’s top virologist for his plan of a system of passes to keep people on beaches safe this summer.

“It’s going to be an ants’ nest here,” Tommelein said when he proposed the beach passes plan, or strandpas in the local Flemish dialect used in the north of Belgium.

The mayor’s sliding scale of priority, with tax-paying locals, second home owners and hotel guests given preference, has provoked criticism among the other nine coastal municipalities, and sparked a discussion about the right of all Belgians to access the country’s sandy beaches.

“Are we going to have to put gates at the entrance to the beaches?” asked Daphné Dumery, the mayor of Blankenberge, 12 miles (19km) north of Ostend. “If a train full of vacationers arrives, will I have to send them home? Do I need to hire new police to deal with this?”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The deserted beach in Ostend. Photograph: Kurt Desplenter/Belga/AFP via Getty Images

Léopold Lippens, the mayor of Knokke-Heist, a resort 30 miles (48km) north of Ostend, said: “Either the beaches are open or they are closed. I do not differentiate between the Flemish, the Walloons, the Brussels residents, the Germans.”

Belgium has three national languages and communities: French, spoken by the Walloon community in the south; Dutch, by the Flemish in the north; and German by a small community on the eastern border.

The country’s coastline has been heavily developed over the years, in part because of a longstanding Belgian ethos that everyone should have access to cheap accommodation for holidays by the beach.

Jean-Marie Dedecker, a former coach of Belgium’s national judo team who is the mayor of Middelkerke, a seaside resort south of Ostend, told the Guardian that the proposed policy was doomed.

A video conference last Friday for the mayors failed to reach a consensus, with the technology only adding heat to the discussions. “With a video conference you can’t discuss things … and I have a big mouth,” said Dedecker.

Dedecker said he would join his fellow mayors at a face-to-face meeting of Belgium’s coastal mayors on Wednesday to debate the issue and present a single policy for endorsement by the national government.

Dedecker said: “The mayor of Ostend said we have to close the beach, let us say, for foreigners. Residents can go to the beach, or if they don’t go then people in hotels and those who have second homes on the coast can go … Only then the normal day-trippers could go on the beach.

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“I absolutely disagree – it is discrimination for the first thing. Not only against Walloons but a lot of Flemish people are coming to the coast. About 30% of our tourists are Walloons, 70% are others, mostly Flemish people. It is discrimination. Beaches are for everyone.”

Belgium’s coastline is heavily built-up with what is commonly described as an Atlantic wall of apartment blocks, built in the 1950s and 1960s when the philosophy was that all Belgians should be able to find comfortable and affordable accommodation by the sea.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ostend beach in July 2014. Photograph: Olivier DJIANN/Getty Images

“The idea was that everyone can come to the coast and can find a proper apartment or go camping, rich and poor,” said Dedecker. “That was the politics of 50s and 60s. Then you have an ugly coast but everyone can go.”

Dedecker said he believed distancing between beachgoers could easily be organised on Belgium’s broad sandy beaches.

He said: “I am expecting a lot of people this summer. People will not travel to Spain, Turkey or Italy.

“We have a huge beach in Middelkerke. We have 12 swimming zones and we have made a calculation that we can put 65,000 people sitting in the sun and they all have a space of 36 sq metres. We have very fresh air. And everybody is already doing social distancing so they will do that on the beaches.”

The Belgian prime minister, Sophie Wilmès, announced plans on Friday to lift restrictions over the next two months, with restaurants reopening and, potentially, permits for day trips being introduced in time for the summer.

“People have to come because our economy is falling down,” said Dedecker. “If we start choosing who can come we will die. We have had an ‘English’ winter – a lot of rain. Stormy weather. We need a beautiful summer.”