To think people shouldn't walk to my village?

[Bohwens]

Hello,

With the knowledge that this will make me sound quite snooty, I firstly apologise and explain it is because I worry for my own and family's safety as we are all asthmatic and at heightened risk from COVID-19.

We live in a very pretty little village, in a small conservation area in a semi rural location. We are about 2 miles from the nearest modern housing estate. Usually, the lane through the village has a couple of regular dog walkers.

Now that we are lockdown and people are getting out to exercise in the sun (great), the lane is like a motorway. There is a constant stream of people from the housing estate coming for their walk to the village. I understand it must be dull to walk around a modern housing estate. Over 500m there were 30 people. Usually you might see 1. We can't even go for a short walk without risk of coming into contact with people.

Entire large families are coming with 5-6 children out of control on bikes etc, treating the lane past our houses like a park. I've spotted people touching our walls, gates etc, even caught one nosing in the garden!

Many of these people are not staying into the side to observe social distancing, and have dogs off the lead that need to be fetched away.

AIBU to think people should stick to their own areas for their exercise? In a way, I something feel that if they wanted beautiful walks outside their front-door they should have coughed up the extra £100k to live here...

This can’t be real surely?!

People really are like this though. The Facebook page for a naice local village outside my big city has had dozens of residents complaining about people walking in the village. They actually seem to think they own the roads and footpaths. They even suggested closing off the road into the village!

"I something feel" that if you don't want people traipsing around near your home, you should have "coughed up" the money to buy your own mansion with a few acres of private, walled grounds.

namesgonenow, your poem is excellent and apposite.

People really are like this though. The Facebook page for a naice local village outside my big city has had dozens of residents complaining about people walking in the village. They actually seem to think they own the roads and footpaths. They even suggested closing off the road into the village

Several villages in the Cotswolds have tried to close off their village

That poster is shocking! What sort of busybody does that in a public area?

My parents live in that village, pocketem. As they are elderly, I joined the village Facebook page so that I could keep an eye on what local companies were offering terms of food deliveries, etc. It is full of the worst kind of busybodies and public shamers. It's really put me off their village and made me see it in a new light. And I am someone who is sticking to all the lockdown rules.

You do see the worst in people on social media, I have seen a new dude to locals who I previously thought were quite intelligent and pleasant.

The village that my parents live in bans breastfeeding in the church hall though.

It’s just the attitude of you are too poor to live here so you don’t deserve to even walk through that gets me. Up here in lancs we have some lovely picturesque villages, but the houses are cheap and they can actually be more places where working class families live that used to have work in agriculture and mills etc and despite living in pretty mill cottages in the rolling hills, they aren’t rich and therefore you’d be very unlikely to see things like this from them. I’ve seen on Facebook the pubs and grocers in quite a few of these villages are working flat out to get food to vulnerable and poorer people in the local area, delivering care boxes and hot meals etc.

Side

Also people complaining about lots of new walkers and where did they come from. Doh! The gyms are closed, the swimming pools are shut as are the parks.

People are just trying to exercise. Footpaths are being closed off by farmers round ‘ere.

Farmers say it’s to protect sheep but I suspect it’s a case of the more grumpy ones using it as an excuse. It’s illegal anyway without permission.

Also people complaining about lots of new walkers and where did they come from. Doh! The gyms are closed, the swimming pools are shut as are the parks.

@Bagelsforbrains. Exactly!
As a family we love walking. We live in a town on the edge of the Peak District so our normal weekend would be to drive to there - up to an hour say - for a long walk in the hills and dales.

Now of course that is problematic so we have been exploring more what we have on our own doorstep, so to speak. Some of it we already knew. However, we have found that as we live near the edge of town we can fairly quickly get in to country roads and lanes that we have not really explored on foot before. Some of these are small hamlets and settlements that are lovely to walk through. Mind you we do walk quite a distance - last Sunday we walked for just over 9 miles on a round trip from our own house.

Maybe some of the properties we walk past wonder where on earth people are coming from. Maybe not - we don't tend to see many other walkers. Quite a few cyclists though. However, I don't think this can be where OP lives because the houses we tend to pass would be substantially more than "an extra £100K" - perhaps add a few zeroes on to that!

It's a local village for local people

Non local's what please go home?

Most of us get that the OP is the sum of the first 2 and last 2 letters of their username, spelt backwards . However, the idea is to stay local to avoid unnecessary car and bike journeys which could put a strain on our stretched emergency services and also increase viral spread. This applies to all of us, whether we live in villages, towns or cities.

In the National Park where we live, visitors are not welcome just now during this international emergency. I repeat, just now. Why would anyone want to go where and when they are really, really not welcome, and only add to the worries and tensions of the people who actually have to live and work there? I just don't get the pleasure in that. Help us now by staying away and you'll be welcomed back with open arms when all this is over.