Mixed messages

[linkshouse]

As with much of this it’s a balancing act between preventing infection and destroying the economy. It seems that the outcome may be a regularly reviewed temporary measure.

It is a difficult one, and it is a balancing act that different sectors of the populace will inevitably view differently so there will be no universal right answer. I'm afraid that whatever the government settle on they will be damned.

One thing I think people seem to lose site of is that the government don't have an bottomless pot of money and whilst they must and should do what they can to support community and businesses, they just can't do it forever and at some point we will have to go back to work wherever we are then at with the pandemic.

 

[linkshouse]

I agree the emphasis is a balance of population wellbeing so thos that can work do so and a robust economy

Tonight’s update interesting wants us all on bikes , I think the motorists are going to get hammered

Whilst it is entirely laudable to encourage the use of bikes and walking over the use of cars and is certainly good for the environment and peoples overall health, I didn't quite understand what it had to do with easing the exit from the lockdown or helping with the pandemic.

 

[landrovereditor]

The carparks are still closed in the Peak District, but following the mixed messages of late the lay-bys that have been mostly empty for a month are filling up again, traffic is increasing and the sounds of fast motorbikes whizzing around are becoming more noticeable.View attachment 81072

No mixed messages. The message is very simple “STAY AT HOME”.

 

[Ellendale]

Down here on the South Coast a load of big vans parked along Meon Shore looking out over the Solent. Most have been there at least three weeks. This kind of behaviour reflects badly on motorhomes. The next step will be a total ban along this lovely stretch of shoreline stopping those of us who may stop only during the day. A couple of large motorhomes even parked side on taking up 4 or 5 parking spaces. Please move on.

This is exactly what happened to the seafront of Aberystwyth. Now there's a total ban on MH/CV's etc. Once again the minority have ruined it for the majority. I don't have a problem with FT's parking up for a night but when it stretches to 4 months with the dogs tied up outside and the grey waste flowing down the gutters with generators running at night as well as day - and there's 16 of them all in a line! Now that's kicking the ar.e out of it!

 

[Deleted member 12051]

The police are as frustrated as all of us. My daughter who is a police officer in Fife hands out stupid £40 fines numerous times on shift, only next day they are back again. I’m talking about Motorhomers who can flout the restrictions with the rules set out. Why would you drive your motorhome anyway to go for a walkAre they letting us think they don’t have cars, bikes or other modes of transport to park up and go for their daily exercise??? These inconsiderate stupid people are playing the system to their own advantage to have a wee jaunt to get fined if caught £40. The government or police who set these figures need to up this amount to a £1000 per person who are putting two fingers up at the police and laughing at my daughter in question. I’m. not very good at diction but I really want to express my anger personally to those that target us sensible ones with the same brush.....WE ARE NOT YOU IDIOTS!!! Leave your motorhome at home where it should be like you and I do. I hope I have said this clearly enough to understand my frustration.

 

[blights]

I think the police are missing a golden opportunity here especially the metropolitan police yesterday I see the people sitting in the park eating pizza and drinking beers and wines must of been at least 200 doing so , the officers in attendance attitude it is a losing battle not worth the fight to try and move them on. FINE THEM and donate the money to the NHS because you did not they will do the same the next day it is sunny it amazes me that so many people politely get told you do know you should not be doing this please do move on. It should be you know this is not allowed you are taking the P*** here is a fine for doing so now go home or I will fine you again. The opportunity to make a fortune for the NHS out of these people who think they are not obliged to follow the rules like the rest of us is enormous my local park had at least 780 British pounds of fine potential in one corner alone,softly softly does not work hit in the pocket definitely does the police find the time to still stand at the end on my road with a speed gun and issue a ticket but cannot walk into a park and issue multiple ones on an even easier non moving target . Makes no sense to me but then I am just an ordinary working member of the public in the at risk category forced to do the 12 week isolation and am doing so . But seeing so many flout and with no penalties for doing so really gets my goat. Rant over enjoy the rain today and Stay Safe everyone so we can at some point meet up again somewhere some when.

 

[jacquigem]

In Spain minimum fine is 600 Euros and if you complain you are likely to get a tap from a big stick !

 

[bobbrigside]

Does anyone know if we’re allowed to shower yet, or should we still just wash hands?

 

[Dezi]

Just got back from our government approved walk, exercise, along Southbourne cliff tops

and noticed 3 motohomes parked up that were not here on Friday.

Dezi

 

[Carrerasax]

The police are as frustrated as all of us. My daughter who is a police officer in Fife hands out stupid £40 fines numerous times on shift, only next day they are back again. I’m talking about Motorhomers who can flout the restrictions with the rules set out. Why would you drive your motorhome anyway to go for a walkAre they letting us think they don’t have cars, bikes or other modes of transport to park up and go for their daily exercise??? These inconsiderate stupid people are playing the system to their own advantage to have a wee jaunt to get fined if caught £40. The government or police who set these figures need to up this amount to a £1000 per person who are putting two fingers up at the police and laughing at my daughter in question. I’m. not very good at diction but I really want to express my anger personally to those that target us sensible ones with the same brush.....WE ARE NOT YOU IDIOTS!!! Leave your motorhome at home where it should be like you and I do. I hope I have said this clearly enough to understand my frustration.

We don’t have a car other than the MH so have to use it for shopping. Fortunately attitudes round here are very pleasant!!!

 

[mjvw]

"Stay Alert" now thats a mixed message???

 

[barryd]

Its still mixed messages though. If indeed you are allowed to drive your vehicle to exercise then presumably you could legitimately drive your motorhome somewhere and go for a walk or a cycle etc as its a vehicle. Personally I dont want to take mine out, partly because I live in a tourist area in the Dales and seeing some of the stuff on Social media I Dont want to to be stoned to death and if I broke down out here it would put people at risk and be a complete PIA.

But if people are worried about their vans not been used and your allowed to travel for exercise then surely a run to a park or some nearby countryside or even to Tescos would be ok.

 

[Ann Schmidt]

The carparks are still closed in the Peak District, but following the mixed messages of late the lay-bys that have been mostly empty for a month are filling up again, traffic is increasing and the sounds of fast motorbikes whizzing around are becoming more noticeable.View attachment 81072

I don’t see any sign of a mixed message - until 19.00 10 th May it is STAY AT HOME no more, no less

 

[mjvw]

I agree.with the wild camping visiting/touring etc some people will take the message as it is "Stay Alert" so go out, drive around and "Stay Alert". Hopefully later today we will get a clear explanation of what "Stay Alert" means, however i will stay in not travelling unless i have to go back to work.

 

[Derekoak]

Whilst it is entirely laudable to encourage the use of bikes and walking over the use of cars and is certainly good for the environment and peoples overall health, I didn't quite understand what it had to do with easing the exit from the lockdown or helping with the pandemic.

If we are to get a greater number back to work, people have to get there. Public transport can only carry 10% of what it used due to social distancing. If people take to their cars there will be gridlock very quickly in cities and even towns. So walk, cycle, run, electric scooter..... they are trying to think of as many ways as possible

 

[linkshouse]

The police are as frustrated as all of us. My daughter who is a police officer in Fife hands out stupid £40 fines numerous times on shift, only next day they are back again. I’m talking about Motorhomers who can flout the restrictions with the rules set out. Why would you drive your motorhome anyway to go for a walkAre they letting us think they don’t have cars, bikes or other modes of transport to park up and go for their daily exercise??? These inconsiderate stupid people are playing the system to their own advantage to have a wee jaunt to get fined if caught £40. The government or police who set these figures need to up this amount to a £1000 per person who are putting two fingers up at the police and laughing at my daughter in question. I’m. not very good at diction but I really want to express my anger personally to those that target us sensible ones with the same brush.....WE ARE NOT YOU IDIOTS!!! Leave your motorhome at home where it should be like you and I do. I hope I have said this clearly enough to understand my frustration.

We have the motorhome and a moped. I'd be hard pressed to cary our shopping on the moped.

 

[linkshouse]

If we are to get a greater number back to work, people have to get there. Public transport can only carry 10% of what it used due to social distancing. If people take to their cars there will be gridlock very quickly in cities and even towns. So walk, cycle, run, electric scooter..... they are trying to think of as many ways as possible

Doh, get it now. I'm a bit slow sometimes

 

[mariesnowgoose]

Seems this 'stay alert' message (which is replacing the 'stay at home' message) might be moving us towards a situation of 'risk management'.
Who knows? Have to wait and see what the PM says later.

Very interesting interview this morning on the Andrew Marr show with Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter, statistician. Well worth a watch. He's level headed and doesn't get drawn into the blame game, just puts the facts on the line.

Here's the link on iPlayer if you want to watch, skip through to 46.24 to see his particular piece:-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000j4vd/the-andrew-marr-show-10052020

Here's a summary of Spiegelhalter's main points that he uses to put the risks into perspective, i.e. how scared we should be.

The statistics he uses are from the ONS (Office for National Statistics), so probably as good as you can get in the UK (the stats for covid-19 are always 2 weeks behind where we actually are right now)

Covid-19 is almost completely a disease of the over 75s.

There have been just over 30k covid deaths in the UK to date.

There are 10 million under 15s (children). Only 2 out of those 10 million have died from covid, so the risk is almost zero.
There are 17 million under 25s. Out of those 26 have died from covid. That's approx 2 deaths per million, again an extremely low risk of dying.
There will almost certainly have been co-morbidity health issues underlying the above deaths.

Move on to the over 90s and more than 1% have died, which equates to a risk 10,000 times greater than the above groups.

 

[maureenandtom]

This is exactly what happened to the seafront of Aberystwyth. Now there's a total ban on MH/CV's etc. Once again the minority have ruined it for the majority. I don't have a problem with FT's parking up for a night but when it stretches to 4 months with the dogs tied up outside and the grey waste flowing down the gutters with generators running at night as well as day - and there's 16 of them all in a line! Now that's kicking the ar.e out of it!

I have to take a little time to answer this in a thread about Covid-19 mixed messages. The ban at Aberystwith goes back to 2015 when the council introduced an experimental traffic order banning motorhomes - later made permanent a couple of years later without the public discussion normally required for TROs. Nothing to do with Coronovirus restrictions. Also, I've only briefly looked back in my records, I believe I made a freedom of information request at the time asking for details of complaints and the council was not able to provide any. This is normal.

I thoughtin 2015 the experiemental ban was simply a ploy to get round the expensive procedure of a permanent TRO. Begin with an experiement, claim that the experiment had been successful and simply make it permanent. It seems this is exactly what happened.

I do remember a radio programme at the time commenting on the 2015 ban and the programme did actually find one woman who was prepared to complain in publc. I recorded the programme but it looks as though I don't have that recording now nor the FoI answer.

 

[Caz]

..................
But if people are worried about their vans not been used and your allowed to travel for exercise then surely a run to a park or some nearby countryside or even to Tescos would be ok.

I have to use a vehicle for some things - supermarkets for weekly shop are too far away to walk, and so is the Vets for Reg's prescription pick ups.

So I have been alternating car and van, that way they are each getting a run at least once a fortnight.