Vulnerable gran appeals to teens
A Soroba mum has appealed to parents to keep an eye on their teenagers during the coronavirus lockdown.
Mum-of-six Sheila Brown, aged 58, was alarmed to see a group of young people in the car park of Oban Tesco linking arms and not maintaining the two-metre social distancing rule – despite being from different households.
Mrs Brown, a grandmother to eight, is concerned about teens not taking the rules seriously.
She said: ‘There were about three to five girls all linking arms, chatting and laughing and wandering about. It made me wonder what the parents are thinking.
‘Why allow them out in the first place?’ she asked. ‘This is serious. If people are starting to congregate around Tesco, I expected to see the police there.’
Mrs Brown has only left her home in Colonsay Terrace three times for food and prescriptions since March 4. As well as being ‘at risk’ due to suffering from COPD and lung infections, she also had to self-isolate for more than a fortnight after husband Andy showed coronavirus symptoms earlier last month.
Although Mr Brown, aged 60, has now recovered, witnessing the toll it took on him has made Mrs Brown only too well aware of how harmful the virus can be. On her own street, Mrs Brown said parents of younger children had immaculately observed the rules since schools sent pupils home by keeping them safely indoors.
Councillor Julie McKenzie, the SNP member for Oban North and Lorn, has warned that constituents have raised concerns with her about a ‘minority’ of people of all ages mixing with friends or visiting family outside their homes.
Councillor McKenzie, a member of Argyll and Bute
Council, said: ‘The rules are clear. Contact at this time should only be between people who live in the same house. No one in our community should be visiting other houses or meeting up with anyone socially.’
She urged anyone with concerns to contact Police Scotland on the 101 number so they can enforce new rules allowing officers to impose fixed penalty fines and move people on.
In the last week, Oban Police said officers had been on patrol to engage with the community and explain the risks to public health and the need to adhere to social isolation. It had also encouraged some people to ‘go home and stay indoors,’ in line with government guidance, it said.
Police Scotland confirmed it had issued nine fixed penalty notices in the first six days of the new regulations across the sizeable Argyll and West Dunbartonshire area.