Local exercise (Lockdown in England)

[LizzieL]

We are told we can take local exercise, but can anyone find a definition of local?

Two women in this report who drove separately five miles from home to take a walk, fined by police.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-55560814

And it's also against the law to take any liquid refreshment with you, apparently.

[rosie99]

If you are using a car to get somewhere then surely this should apply
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/national-lockdown-stay-at-home#travel


Travel
You must not leave your home unless you have a reasonable excuse (for example, for work or education purposes). If you need to travel you should stay local – meaning avoiding travelling outside of your village, town or the part of a city where you live

[Christine53]

The guidance defines staying local as staying within your village, town or part of a city where you live.
It also says you  can travel a short distance to access open space. In this instance it does seem a bit harsh to fine people for driving 5 miles to exercise on their own rather than walking around streets where they'd come into contact with others and rather pedantic to say they shouldn't have taken a warm drink as that is picnicking and not allowed .

I'm just waiting to be hauled over the coals for travelling to do my Click and Collect - much safer in my opinion than shopping in our overcrowded local shop.

[Davedrave]

We are told we can take local exercise, but can anyone find a definition of local?

Two women in this report who drove separately five miles from home to take a walk, fined by police.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-55560814

And it's also against the law to take any liquid refreshment with you, apparently.

The rules surrounding lockdown have been pretty opaque from the start, but reading this BBC report, it very much looks as if the police have behaved inappropriately. I would suggest that they might have been better employed checking on mask wearing compliance in supermarkets rather than worrying about someone driving a few miles. As for a warm drink (in the current weather especially) constituting a picnic...
I think that too much of this sort of nonsense will lose the police the support of the public.

These rules re travel and exercise become a joke when we consider that our government is only now beginning to put in place proper checks on travellers arriving from overseas.

Above all the emphasis needs to be on discouraged people from visiting others in different households indoors. Such things have been going on in my street throughout the lockdown, and indoors is where the virus mainly spreads, not between distancing individuals outdoors (with or without a hot coffee).

[mazi]

Outdoor areas such as botanic gardens, heritage sites, national trust etc can stay open, so it is reasonable to assume you can visit your nearest one.

Mike

[Christine53]

Outdoor areas such as botanic gardens, heritage sites, national trust etc can stay open, so it is reasonable to assume you can visit your nearest one.

Mike

Apparently not - we had an email from the RHS saying that they  are open but members shouldn't travel from outside their own local areas to visit them. ( I wouldn't go anyway ).

[GrahamSimons]

The rules are one thing. Making sure you don't put yourself or others at risk means keeping well within them. Any travel can mean you can be taking the infection with you or bringing it home. So the question is not, "How far am I allowed to go?" but "How can I minimise my travel?" It's not shopping as a couple in the supermarket because if you do, you have an extra chance of your household being infected, and there are two of you as potential asymptomatic spreaders of the disease.

[roopat]

This is ridiculous - & exactly what gives the covidiots an 'excuse' to carry on mixing./doing as they please.


We have a dog which is very reactive to other dogs (rescue dog who was picked on by other dogs). We can't walk him in the village as it's heaving with dogs, often off the lead (nightmare) so we drive a couple of miles to a quiet country road. This is covered in the guidance 'attending to the care and exercise of an animal'.


Yesterday along this quiet road we saw 2 separate walkers, 2 women on horseback and a police officer in his patrol car stopped to speak to us. This was totally unusual for the location! We usually only see the occasional jogger. We thought maybe the police officer was going to challenge us (not sure why he should but....) actually he was asking us about a 4WD parked in the adjacent field. We said we thought it was the local farmer's & he went on his way to check it out. We did stop to 'pass the time of day' with all the people we passed, keeping well away from each other.


That police officer used his initiative. What a shame some of the others can't


Pat

[Marmalady]

Derbyshire Police are very strict about defining what is and is not acceptable in regards to exercising in a local area. And many Derbyshire residents are thankful for it.

The Peak District has been overwhelmed by people coming out from Manchester, Sheffield, Derby and even further afield for "exercise" throughout the pandemic.

Only last weekend (before lockdown, but while we were in Tier 4 ) the police had to rescue dozens of people who had driven out from the cities "to look at the snow" and then got stuck or lost as more snow fell.
This week a court case was reported that resulted from people coming out from the cities on a camping trip during the first lockdown and lighting a fire which then spread and set  the moorland ablaze needing several fire engines spending days up there to ensure it was properly extinguished.

So if a few people get there feathers ruffled because they disagree with how the police are interpreting the "stay local" rule, so be it.