Police checking at beauty spot for coronavirus rule-breakers
VISITORS arriving at a popular beauty spot near Burton have been subject to checks by police to make sure they are not breaching lockdown rules.
Foremark Reservoir is still welcoming visitors but they have to live nearby to use the venue to get out in the fresh air for their daily exercise during the third lockdown or they risk breaking the rules and could be slapped with a Covid fine.
Local is defined as people staying within their village, town or part of the city where they live.
To make sure visitors are from the nearby area, police have been to the site and questioned people, sending them home if they are not considered to be local.
It comes after the country was plunged into a third lockdown as the number of new cases of coronavirus continues to rise.
A spokesman for Foremark said: “We have had lots of questions on what is local, when planning on coming to the site please ask yourself if our site is your nearest green space that you can access to exercise? If the answer is ‘no’ then please reconsider. We have had the police on our site asking people exactly this question and sending people home if they are not local.”
The car parks and trials remain open throughout the site and car parking charges still apply, with hand sanitiser next to the machines.
People are asked to visit on their own, with their household, bubble or to meet one other person while they are at the beauty spot, which conforms with Covid rules.
Toilets will remain open at Foremark, with those using them asked to wear a mask when going inside.
The venue’s kiosk is open for takeaway only and people are asked to grab and go, so that there are no congregating groups around any areas. The venue’s play area is also open and visitors are asked to sanitise on entry and exit and observe the signs.
Foremark Reservoir is owned by Severn Trent Water. Last summer the beauty spot hit the headlines when dozens of people armed with picnics descended on the reservoir, parking cars dangerously on roads in the area as the car park was so full.
It led to police issuing tickets to motorists and Severn Trent pleading with visitors to turn round and go home if they saw the car park was full.