This morning my husband and I took our three children on a long walk/scoot to a local park that is probably two miles away. We had seen the recent police guidance that said stopping for a snack during a long period of exercise is allowed, so we packed some crisps, fruit and our water bottles, intending to have them in the park before heading back home. We have twin DSes, four, and a one year old DD.
While sitting in the park (in a green space, far from any paths, with no one nearby) two police officers approached and said we needed to move on because what we were doing was against guidelines and someone had called to report us. It wasn’t a problem to leave, but I was a little annoyed by the situation. I mentioned the guidelines regarding a snack during long exercise and they seemed unaware of this, and asked to see it on my phone. They then said that it was an issue of public perception, which I understand, but I’m not sure why that would impact the legality of our actions. One officer suggested that we should have gone to a park closer to our house, but the space isn’t really comparable and it’s more of a play park: lots of equipment that is currently covered in caution tape.
I don’t know really why I’m writing this, except I feel frustrated. We’ve followed all the guidelines for the past month and it’s annoying that the police seem unaware of the guidance that has been made publicly available that says what we did was acceptable. It was also just really nice to go slightly further than the one mile radius around our house and enjoy seeing the flowers in the park, and it feels like it put a dampener on the morning.
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Spoken to by the police
288 replies
Foldinthecheese · 20/04/2020 22:07
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