To think Middlesbrough should not lock the parks

[calllaaalllaaammma]

The Mayor of Middlesbrough has decided that the people of Middlesbrough can't be trusted not to congregate in parks and they remain locked.
I'm sad as my dad is on his own there, we can't visit and he used to get a lot of pleasure walking the central Middlesbrough park.
There's lots of terraced housing there with young families with no gardens.
I understand there is a small increased risk but think they could police it and the attitude of the Mayor is high handed and condescending.
Vote Yes, re-open it
No, Keep it locked

Is this Albert Park? I used to live in Middlesbrough and broke my foot scaling the main gates when they were locked so don’t try that!

kitten someone raised that on his page, and AP was quite affronted at the decision.

I have thought a bit more - and whilst it is totally the right decision to open the parks, it is really bad timing to do so this weekend and significantly increases the chance of them being extra busy. He's told people for the last 6 weeks that we will all die have high rates of infection in the town so I guess it is no surprise that this is the fall out.

It has been a difficult issue there. (I am originally from the NE).

"One in eight children in Middlesbrough start school obese.

By the time they leave primary school, that figure has almost doubled to a quarter".
Given the obesity and covid 19 issue is is a good time for people to try to eat a lot less.

The reason parks are closed in Middlesbrough is because it has the highest virus deaths in the country and 25% of people there were breaking the lock down rules
Its been done for the absolute best reasons.. To save lives!
Your dad can take a walk but not in the park

Except Middlesbrough doesn't have the highest virus death rate in the country, and there is likely to be many other things impacting on death rates.*

I am not sure why the parks were considered such a hotbed of infection, not when people were queuing right round the car park to get into the supermarkets.

*I am aware the death rate is high, but the reasons for that need to be looked at closely and not think that it is a simple as closing the parks.

It's just the timing, only a few days before BJs next review of the lockdown that's making me

This is really outrageous.
Only well-off people with their own gardens could possibly think it was reasonable to ban people in small flats from outside space.
Please complain about this dreadful policy.

And a week later it turns out that central Middlesbrough and it’s parks were not the highest rates anyway. Street parties on a weekday afternoon and a localised covid breeding ground in a supermarket seems to be a larger cause for the rise by the sounds of it.

Its not it’s

And, after 2 days, Albert Park will only be open 7am-12 noon, and Stewart's Park 7am-5pm.
I'm guessing there were issues, but I dont know what.

There are plenty of places to walk in Boro without going in the parks. You can actually walk right around the edge of Albert park using pavement, no need to go in it at all. Or how about walking up to the transport bridge, round via the tremolos, past the stadium and back into town if you want a long walk; I rarely see anyone when I walk that route even since they improved the route. The pedestrian area in town will be open even if the shops aren’t and there are plenty of green spaces which aren’t lockable parks, such as around MIMA. So many options of routes to walk, jog, run other than the parks which are hard to police at the best of times. They may not all be pretty parks, but Boro’s streets are full of sculptures, art and historic buildings which are well worth exploring too.

I'm from Teesside the behaviour since lockdown has been disgraceful complete disguard for others. The number of stories of social gathering in the bramble farm area is shocking full blown parties in the streets, fighting etc.