YOUR PICTURE OF THE WEEK
Tranquil morning at Scammonden by Marc Silverside
need to help keep the air clean and we should avoid polluting it with garden bonfires. Just store the waste and where possible compost it, and perhaps look at using the waste to create a wildlife habitat in the garden.
If having a fire is absolutely unavoidable, make sure that only dry wood is burnt, you have a hot fire that emits very little smoke and restrict the burning period to no more than an hour. Then make sure that the fire is totally extinguished to avoid the risk of remaining embers smouldering. There is also the issue of the risk of bonfires getting out of control in the present dry weather conditions and the consequent need to call out the emergency services. In the present situation we should avoid the need to put pressure on our emergency services.
So best thing is that we stop having garden bonfires during this emergency. We all need to pull together at this stage. Stay safe. your pages every day about social distancing.
Whilst I don’t defend driving to the coast or national parks to take exercise, for those who are confined to a small flat or terrace house, a short trip to a local park is quite acceptable as long as distancing rules are observed.
And if when they get there people spend a short time sitting on the grass or seats, at a suitable distance from others what harm is done? undermining our goodwill. Worse still, encouraging people to report those ‘breaking the rules’ sounds too much like citizens of the former East Germany being told to grass on their neighbours to the Stasi.
The police are going to have to need to live with us when this is all over, so time to call off the dogs before too much long lasting damage is done.
‘The overzealous attitude being adopted by some police officers risks harming public trust and undermining our goodwill’