‘Making 30-mile journeys to enjoy exercise is entirely wrong thing to do’
PUBLIC health bosses have urged people to travel only to their nearest park to exercise, in a bid to resolve confusion about the lockdown rules.
The government regulations, intended to stop the spread of coronavirus, say that people should stay at home as much as possible but limit themselves to once a day exercise in their local area.
However, “local” has not been defined in law and there have been cases of people from Leicestershire travelling to the Calke Abbey National Trust park over the border in Derbyshire – and being fined by police.
Officials are becoming frustrated that many people are seeking to push the boundaries of the restrictions rather than limit their movements.
Leicester City Council’s public health director, Professor Ivan
Browne, said: “You can’t do what you normally do and this applies to everybody. Bradgate Park might be nicer than the park nearest to us, but we are in unusual times so we should be going to the park nearest to us for that exercise.
“There is a personal responsibility to say that means me, and I should not travel further than is needed.”
His counterpart at the county council, Mike Sandys, said: “There
is what is within the scope of the law but then you have to ask yourself should you be making 30-mile journeys?
“To me that is entirely the wrong thing to do and I would hope that people realise morally and practically what is acceptable and what is not.”
Car parks at country parks and beauty spots in Leicestershire remain open but county council leader Nick Rushton said people should not take that as licence to go to them.
He said: “I know the police in Derbyshire were giving out fines this week for people visiting Calke Park and I know one woman who had driven there from Coalville and she got a fine.”
He said he had asked Leicestershire police what approach they were taking, adding: “At the moment they are not adopting the same tactics as
Derbyshire, but people need to follow their moral duty and be reasonable. This isn’t a police state. We are not being asked to stay in to spite us but to stay in for our own benefit and for the benefit of us all.”
He said where parks were open, their car parks would remain open.
He said: “I don’t want to be pestering police to deal with inappropriate parking that might take place if we close car parks.”