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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to expect people to stay away from our AONB?

243 replies

Llig · 16/05/2020 20:02

I live in the North East, a village within an area of outstanding natural beauty. AIBU to want people to stay away for the time being?

People need exercise for sure, totally agree with that. But the swarms of people descending on us right now is an absolute joke. As a village we have (mostly) followed all government guidance, particularly as we have a lot of elderly residents who are at hig risk. Since the rules have been slightly relaxed, our village feels overrun. No social distancing measures by these visitors either. A friend even caught a bloke weeing behind the public toilets as they're currently locked. What is wrong with people?

Anyway, what are your thoughts?

OP posts:
Original poster
Llig · 16/05/2020 20:41

@Sillyscrabblegames I did technically say 'ours' Grin

OP posts:
Sandybval · 16/05/2020 20:41

He probably thought the toilets were open and was desperate to go.

ChewChewIsMySpiritAnimal · 16/05/2020 20:42

It's not yours, and people can go where they like. It's not up to you to tell them where they can and cannot go. It's like people think that when they live in a beautiful place, that means they have the right to dictate who else goes there. You don't.

PickUpAPickUpAPenguin · 16/05/2020 20:45

Seems counterintuitive but you should drive to a quieter place for your exercise.

Your problem is with Boris not the people taking advantage of the new rules.

PersephoneandHades · 16/05/2020 20:45

People feel the need to travel further out because in cities the parks and streets are too full of people so social distancing is difficult. What is wrong with people going further out so that there is less saturation? If a family travels in their personal car and observes social distancing why is it offensive that they would go to an open space (which is public property and they are equally as entitled to be on as you)?

Since lockdown began I have seen on this site people angry that:

  • people are leaving their house at all
  • more people are jogging
  • more people are cycling
  • more people are going to parks for their daily exercise
  • people are allowing their children outside

And all of the above have the succinct implication that these ‘visitors’ are encroaching on the complainers turf. Get over it, these people are not trying to hurt you they’re just trying to take a walk.

BMW6 · 16/05/2020 20:46

I'd be tempted to be friendly and casually ask where they live, then drive and piss on their drive

TotorosFurryBehind · 16/05/2020 20:47

YABU. Many of the people visiting 'your' area will have been stuck exercising in urban areas for weeks, think what a massive benefit this one trip to to the area you get to see every day has had on their mental health.

BMW6 · 16/05/2020 20:47

Or take a note of some car registrations, get addresses from DVLA and do a mob pissing-on-their-gardens

BelleSausage · 16/05/2020 20:51

For those who don’t understand:

Country villages often have a disproportionately high number of elderly people. They are very much retirement places.

By coming from an area of high infection to go for a walk and touching gates, going into shops and bakeries, you are spreading the virus further and forcing elderly villagers to stay at home.

You’re not helping. You’re forcing the frightened elderly to stay home so you can enjoy a view.

Bugger off.

BMW6 · 16/05/2020 20:52

stuck exercising in urban areas for weeks

Weeks? Crikey, what trauma. Hmm Years in solitary confinement, yeas of course Trauma. But weeks in Urban setting? What a bloody JOKE! Cop on to yourself!

Thingsdogetbetter · 16/05/2020 20:53

People living in crowded cities, having to exercise on crowded pavements and in crowded parks, probably do not see 'crowding' in your rural area in the same way you do. They've had to dodge the hundreds of people living in flats on their streets weekly just to get food. And that includes the elderly and the vulnerable in cities too. Since March!. I think you can put up with it for a day or two until the initial eurphoric rush of freedom wears off.

BelleSausage · 16/05/2020 20:54

And before anyone cries how unfair is: not interested.

We have spent months as a community to try to keep our many elderly neighbours safe and happy. It is not right to have that jeopardised by selfish people out on a jolly.

Thecurtainsofdestiny · 16/05/2020 20:55

Yanbu. It's a lack of common sense.

IncrediblySadToo · 16/05/2020 20:55

Blame Boris & the rest of the clowns.

They should have said the same as Wales 'stay local'

No matter where/how pretty etc people should not be moving around the country taking the virus to other places.

Dita73 · 16/05/2020 20:57

Unless they’re in your garden YABU

NailsNeedDoing · 16/05/2020 20:58

I feel like this is such a selfish attitude. You have had eight weeks of your beautiful countryside all to yourself, some other people have been cooped up without even gardens or having to walk around nothing but residential streets. Is it really that hard to understand why people want to go somewhere nice for a few hours now that they’ve been told they’re allowed to? Because it seems blatantly obvious to me.

As for the bloke that had a wee, well that’s not nice but if you’ve got to go you’ve got to go! Blame the council for shutting the facilities that people were obviously going to need.

CrystalTipped · 16/05/2020 20:58

No-one bats an eyelid when someone from a shit area says "my town"...

CrystalTipped · 16/05/2020 21:00

Blame the council for shutting the facilities that people were obviously going to need.

They've been closed for a reason. Do you want to get up close and personal with strangers' germs right now?

I'd rather blame the twats who can't leave home without going to the loo first, or live too far away to get back to their own loo.

Noextremes2017 · 16/05/2020 21:00

Well - are they doing anything illegal? No.

Unpleasant (pissing behind the toilets). Yes.

If people doing unpleasant things was a crime half the nation would be locked up.

They will be gone by Monday hopefully. But they would be gone quicker or not there at all if the Government took some responsibility and opened up the economy properly.

ViciousJackdaw · 16/05/2020 21:00

By coming from an area of high infection to go for a walk and touching gates, going into shops and bakeries

This is a local shop for local people - we'll have no trouble here.

refriedbeanstalk · 16/05/2020 21:03

By coming from an area of high infection to go for a walk and touching gates, going into shops and bakeries, you are spreading the virus further and forcing elderly villagers to stay at home.

They haven't come there to go shopping , they've come for some exercise. And elderly people should be washing their hands after touching things like everyone else. What do you think elderly people in cities are doing?

If people are coming in your private property, you can complain about that. Otherwise, the space belongs to everyone, no matter what your active imagination might tell you.

HotDogGuy · 16/05/2020 21:05

I feel your pain. My in-laws are worried about the influx of people into the village they live in.
They’re vulnerable (over 70’s) and FIL has a lung problem though is not on the shielding list. They have been able to get out and go for walks without seeing anyone. But now they feel like they’re trapped in their homes as people come for the day out. They’re worried that they’ll be asymptomatic people bringing the virus with them and it will have a huge impact on the older population living in the village.
We will be staying close to our home for the foreseeable - it feels safer that way.

NailsNeedDoing · 16/05/2020 21:07

No-one bats an eyelid when someone from a shit area says "my town"...

People from towns tend to naturally accept that there will be lots of other people in ‘their’ town who also consider it to be theirs.

You don’t hear them complaining that other people are visiting.

Bluntness100 · 16/05/2020 21:08

I'd be tempted to be friendly and casually ask where they live, then drive and piss on their drive

Are you drunk? How is visiting a village remotely the same as pissing on someone’s drive?

No one has Pissed on the ops drive nor does she own the village.

I live in an aonb, there is a public right of way by my house, which is on a private drive. Ramblers and dog walkers walk past. Some even stop and take pics. Mostly they just say good morning or whatever if I’m in the garden near the border. That’s their right. I’d never dream of calling it my aonb, or my right of way.

Because just like the op it’s not mine. I have no more right to it than they do and she has no more right to it than the out of town visitors.

SchadenfreudePersonified · 16/05/2020 21:08

YANBU - the figures are still rising in the NE - people shouldn't be travelling to beauty spots.

Just because they can, doesn't mean they should.