Coronavirus Impact

[Scoobz1]

Have a look at the Twitter feed rather than the b*******s being stated. It's hilarious.

And I totally disagree with you. I always walk in the forest as its local to me. My first green space is the area in the estate which says no dogs allowed on the grass. Oops not sure that meets the definition under the government guidance....... what am I suppose to do?

Now the 3 guys kicking a football on the trail in the New Forest...... debatable. No houses in their direction of travel for miles.

Second green space , third green space there must be a lot before you get to 9 miles and as for always walking in the forest as it local to me what's that got to do with it? I used to do lots of things that I can't or shouldn't do now ... Anyway thank god the vast majority don't take your view

 

[Amarillo]

Tom

Really, I like a lot of what you write but this I cannot agree with.

The difference is a government acting authoritarian and a government seeking popular support for an unpopular but unavoidable measure. Are you really saying that you cannot be trusted to act as a responsible adult and therefore need to be told what to do?

We are all being told what to do already. And we comply. Apart from exercise, the only time I have been out of our home in ten days is to visit the vet and take some medicine to my mum for her elderly dog.

Clare drives to and from her job at Guys Hospital to avoid public transport.

Apart from Clare at her work, we touch no hard smooth surfaces outside of our home. We don’t come into close contact with anyone apart from each other.

With Clare a key worker, we forgo our right to have our boys continue at school to reduce mingling.

We either cycle or walk once a day in a safe manner avoiding contact with people and hard smooth surfaces.

 

[Amarillo]

I was suggesting leaving the bikes and walking to the local park, go off the path and let the boys tire themselves out running on the grass if possible.

Yes - we do that regularly.

They also cycle in another park.

We also go for a ride on our tandem.

A sort of three day rotation of safe exercise complying with Government regulation and guidance.

Meg’s confined to the garden to give her poor paw a chance to heal. Once she’s better the rides on our tandem will go.

 

[pjm-84]

No, not really.

The vast majority seem to be shopping. Risk of shopping versus going out to green spaces with dogs. Easy one to work out. Lots vs zilch. Anyway, we've shopped less and used local stores and deliveries which seems to be a more sensible option. Cost a little more but hey let's reduce risk rather than be concerned about money.

Suggest you review the comments on the Twitter feed. People pointing out the obvious to DP. Crowed London tube vs walking in the peaks etc. The flying a drone - not essential is quite funny. Some of the GIF observations are very astute.

Depend if you have active dogs or not? If I didn't have dogs I wouldn't have to go out. I have indoor exercise facilities and find no pleasure walking around urban streets trying to avoid other people. I did a 5km ergo on my Concept 2 rowing machine yesterday morning and a 35km ride on Zwift. Plus a 5km walk in the New Forest with the dogs .

 

[Loz]

I think the discouragement of driving to places is nothing to do with spread or risk of accidents etc. its purely about the perception.
The more vehicles seen going to and fro gives the impression of normality and more will then do it.

 

[larrylamb]

I drove home from work at 10pm last night, 14 miles of B roads through 4 villages. Didn't see a sausage out and about or another vehicle, was quite eerie but also pleasing.

 

[GrannyJen]

 

[GrannyJen]

I think the Government is playing it along. One week we will ask you, and when asking flagrantly doesn't work (mothers day carparks crammed) then we'll tell you.

Wait for the French and Irish measures to come into play, no more than 2k from home, end of.

 

[Lightning]

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[HB19]

Look!!

No surprise there. If I had a wilderness on my doorstep I too might interpret (or misinterpret) the guidance differently. What is not open to interpretation (or misinterpretation) are the regulations.

If the government felt a necessity to close public rights of way in the countryside they would have done so.

If they wanted to prohibit (or even discourage) driving to a place to exercise they would have been explicit. All it would take is a single line of a few words. “You must not drive to a place to exercise.” or “you should not drive to a place for exercise.” would suffice.

The government doesn’t want to make a criminal of everyone who goes for a walk beyond their immediate local area but they are hoping that most people will have the common sense to see these restrictions as a moral advisory and not an opportunity for the “clever clogs” amongst us to look for loopholes.
Surely it’s not that hard to see the objectives here, it’s really not that complicated.

 

[Velma's Dad]

How many words does it take to say, “stay local” or “don’t drive”? There is a reason that hasn’t been included in the guidance. The message is all about social distance and hand washing.

But the guidance DOES indeed include "stay local".

"stay local and use open spaces near to your home where possible – do not travel unnecessarily"
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/coronavirus-guidance-on-access-to-green-spaces

(It does not mention "don't drive".)

 

[Amarillo]

More confusion:

Defiant Devon garden centre owner 'rips up' council order to close business

"If we close we will go bankrupt. This isn't a moral decision for me, I will lose my house."

www.devonlive.com

 

[Velma's Dad]

More confusion:

Defiant Devon garden centre owner 'rips up' council order to close business

"If we close we will go bankrupt. This isn't a moral decision for me, I will lose my house."

www.devonlive.com

Got to feel for the guy. Although slightly tempered by his contradictory statements:
1. "We are a hardware store, that's the definition of our business. We sell home and garden tools and accessories in our store..."
2. "We've had so many police here today, you'd think we were drug dealers - we're trying to sell plants."

 

[GrannyJen]

I am prepared to bet that the government's Stay at Home message, to be effective, needs to drive down population movement to a certain threshold, but not below it, in order to reduce the modelled peaking of acute cases within ICU capacity. If they needed to achieve something closer to 100% lock-down, they'd have forced all places of work to close apart from health and emergency services.

On that assumption, I think the recirculating assertions (not by central government, by the way) that it's unacceptable to get in your car and drive a couple of miles to a quiet open space to go for a walk will turn out to be like the campaign in 1939 to donate the railings outside your house to be melted down to make munitions: as it turned out the ironwork was of no practical value (much of it was dumped in the North Sea, it seems), but serving tokenistically to focus public resolve and "we're all in this together"-ness.

Meanwhile, Forestry Commission has just closed all of its car parks nation wide. Which no doubt will deter some from driving long distances to visit the New Forest - probably not a bad thing - but also will stop people in my area from visiting a small FC-managed wood that sits between several villages, slightly further than walking distance to reach, but which has been a safe place for local people with kids to drive to and go for a walk.

Just saying.

It is my feeling that the Government, whilst flattening the curve, would also quite like a large proportion of the "robust sector" to be developing a certain level of immunity for when they start to release "the vulnerable' back in tosociety hopefully when the peak is well passed and the strain on NHS resources lessens. Balancing acts all round,

 

[HB19]

But the guidance DOES indeed include "stay local".

"stay local and use open spaces near to your home where possible – do not travel unnecessarily"
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/coronavirus-guidance-on-access-to-green-spaces

(It does not mention "don't drive".)

It’s actually about keeping as many people as possible safe and well so that the NHS can cope with the challenges ahead. The government is hoping that the majority of people will be understanding and reasonable for the benefit of all.
Undoubtedly some people will need to drive - to and from work, or as part of their work, to take care of vulnerable relatives, to hospital appointments, to the shops - imagine how hard it would be if we had to separate out all the different activities that might involve driving. The general rule of thumb is, PLEASE stay local, don’t drive anywhere unless you have to, stay home as much as you can. Really, it’s not hard to understand this. It’s not a game of find the loop hole, be as pedantic as possible about the language. The aims are clear so the message is simple .. do you really have to travel ???

 

[andyinluton]

Got to feel for the guy. Although slightly tempered by his contradictory statements:
1. "We are a hardware store, that's the definition of our business. We sell home and garden tools and accessories in our store..."
2. "We've had so many police here today, you'd think we were drug dealers - we're trying to sell plants."

I sympathise as well, sainsburys are allowed to sell whatever they want including hardware & plants just because they are listed as a food store.
Especially when you are still able to get the same stuff delivered to home by the likes of Homebase.

He needs to set up a delivery service, wander round with a webcam for the customer to choose stuff & then do local deliveries.

 

[HB19]

Got to feel for the guy. Although slightly tempered by his contradictory statements:
1. "We are a hardware store, that's the definition of our business. We sell home and garden tools and accessories in our store..."
2. "We've had so many police here today, you'd think we were drug dealers - we're trying to sell plants."

I think the police are really struggling with what’s acceptable and what’s not .. hopefully they’ll get into their stride and get some consistency to their response pretty soon. I would have thought that some hardware stores will need to stay open to provide for urgent need, for instance, boiler repairs, plumbing and other home emergencies, to support the agricultural sector and other key areas .. garden plants .. not so sure. We are primary food producers so working as normal still, and it’s becoming really hard to get the things we need to keep the business going. I know other food producers are having similar issues.

 

[Lightning]

I sympathise as well, sainsburys are allowed to sell whatever they want including hardware & plants just because they are listed as a food store.
Especially when you are still able to get the same stuff delivered to home by the likes of Homebase.

He needs to set up a delivery service, wander round with a webcam for the customer to choose stuff & then do local deliveries.

Sainsburys also have all their in store Argos open, this was described as exploiting a loophole on the radio.

 

[Karlos]

Got to feel for the guy. Although slightly tempered by his contradictory statements:
1. "We are a hardware store, that's the definition of our business. We sell home and garden tools and accessories in our store..."
2. "We've had so many police here today, you'd think we were drug dealers - we're trying to sell plants."

There are some plants the police are interested in.

 

[AlisonF]

I just watched the latest news bulletin from the government. The graphs shown scared me. There are increases in deaths and cases that, to my eye, did not look like they were slowing.
Enough said?

 

[T6 CFO]

Daily bulletin clearly showing a spike in car use.

I’m suspecting that we might need to ramp up the lock down if complacency sets in. Let’s hope this was just a spike.




Mike

 

[andyinluton]

Apart from the none essential travel bit, I would have thought it makes sense to keep garden centres open & encourage people to get out in their own gardens - ideally plant some veg etc

I was fortunate enough to have about 40 railway sleepers already & got enough compost, seeds etc in before lockdown, Have spent the weekends constructing the raised beds that I'd not got round to for about 6 years.

 

[andyinluton]

Daily bulletin clearly showing a spike in car use.

I’m suspecting that we might need to ramp up the lock down if complacency sets in. Let’s hope this was just a spike.




Mike

Or is it a case of people avoiding public transport as seen as unsafe, In London the congestion charge is waived, a lot of parking is free, certainly on a lot of our building sites car sharing is almost none existent now so where we might have had 10 blokes turn up in a minibus theres now probably 8 cars.

 

[T6 CFO]

Apart from the none essential travel bit, I would have thought it makes sense to keep garden centres open & encourage people to get out in their own gardens - ideally plant some veg etc

I was fortunate enough to have about 40 railway sleepers already & got enough compost, seeds etc in before lockdown, Have spent the weekends constructing the raised beds that I'd not got round to for about 6 years.

We ordered on line and stuff is arriving no problem.
Been landscaping the garden and my dig for Britain wife has now taken the lawn for potatoes and root veg.

Don’t think we need people driving to garden centres.


Mike

 

[GrannyJen]

Well, just back from my run and pleased to note there were only six cars in the beachside car park so I was able to run through it without problem.... although I do have a query in my head .... with massive separation available for six cars why all park next to each other?