Fines for visit to reservoir are rescinded
TWO women who were fined £200 for travelling five miles from their homes to go on a socially distanced walk have been told by Derbyshire police that the fixed penalty notices (FPNS) have been withdrawn following a review.
It came after Jessica Allen and Eliza Moore appeared on the ITV daytime show This Morning and told hosts Holly Willoughby and Phil Schofield about the incident.
Derbyshire’s Chief Constable Rachel Swann said: “Two fixed penalty notices that were handed to two women who had travelled to Foremark Reservoir on Thursday have been withdrawn and we have notified the women directly, apologising for any concern caused.
“I support the fact that the officers were trying to encourage people to stay local to prevent the spread of the virus. This is a responsibility for all of us.
“All of our FPNS issued in conjunction with the Covid guidance are subject to review. Having received clarification of the guidance issued by the National Police
Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) on Friday, these FPNS as well as a small number of others issued, were reviewed in line with that latest advice, and so it is right that we have taken this action.
“We have been working hard to understand the ever-changing guidance and legislation and to communicate this to our officers in a way that makes it clear what is the right course of action to take. At present there is no clear limit as to how far people can travel to exercise, but Government guidance strongly requests people do not leave their local area. We all
have a responsibility to follow both the regulations and the guidance put in place to protect the NHS and save lives, and I would expect my officers to continue to take the four Es approach; to engage, explain, encourage, and enforce, to help us to keep them and their communities safe.”
The county’s police and crime commissioner Hardyal Dhindsa said: “I welcome the force’s readiness to review these Fixed Penalty Notices and to subsequently rescind them.”
Jessica and Eliza travelled from their respective homes in Ashby in separate cars to Foremark Reservoir, but were quickly handed a £200 fine from police for breaking Covid rules.
Speaking hours before the chief constable’s statement, the women told Holly and Phil they felt like they hadn’t broken any rules.
Eliza said: “The reservoir that we visited was about five miles from home, it was about a ten minute drive. We’d learnt from social media that the place where we live was really busy with walkers, as it has been throughout this pandemic during the lockdown.
“And so we decided it would be safer for us to head out somewhere which was more of an open space and it would keep us safer, and it would be safer for everyone else as well.”
Eliza continued: “The officers approached us as we parked, we parked two spaces away from each other to ensure we really were complying with social distancing, and the officers soon started walking towards our vehicles. We were in shock when it happened.”
Asked how many officers there were, Jessica said: “Definitely five that came to speak, but I think there were more. When we first drove in there was a police van and there was a police car as well and the men and women stood around the vehicles, but five definitely came to our cars.
“Straight away when they came over they started questioning as to why we were there, the initial question was were we friends and where were we from.
“We explained that we were two villages away from where we were and we’d come for a socially distanced walk, and explained that we were aware of the guidelines and we were allowed to travel to an open space.
“The officers went on to tell us that we had gone too far out of our local area.
“As Eliza said, we were a short drive of about five miles.
Eliza went on to say: “I think ultimately their goal was to issue us with a fine.”
I support the fact that the officers were trying to encourage people to stay local.
Rachel Swann