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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:
CatandtheFiddle · 17/05/2020 12:51

Personally I'd rather we'd had a stricter shorter lockdown - including border restrictions - and used that time to prepare properly for a safer easing

That makes a lot of sense. Most of the UK is an island (and NI is part of the island of Ireland). So the government should have really worked to close the borders as much as possible by using strict quarantine, enforced by criminal sanctions, frankly.

But that would require the current government to have strategic thinkers, and moral, ethical backbone. Instead of bad (and indeed offensive) attempts at behaving like Churchill, or looking like a herd of deer caught in the headlights.

ToffeeYoghurt · 17/05/2020 12:52

Perhaps it was people from the next village who took the Keep Out message to the next stage.... They pitchforked one of the Flooding Hordes and decided to bury him in a neighbouring village...

CuriousaboutSamphire · 17/05/2020 12:53

It was fucking horrible. For the local who reported a couple in a car driving round, behaving suspiciously and the local policeman who thought they were odd enough to check the boot!

We've had sniffer dogs, search groups, helicopters, all sorts, for days. It's grim... local sense of humour has turned particularly dark.

understandmenow · 17/05/2020 13:01

2 city folk came to dispose of a body in our AONB this week. You can all fuck off, as far as I am concerned.

I'm not sure this situation is reflective of all city people! I knew someone who was a pedophile and lived in the country, so are all country people pedophiles?

Viviennemary · 17/05/2020 13:01

That's grim. I read a report the other day about a couple carrying a suitcase and stopped by a policeman. That is equally horrific. Or it might be the same one.

jane1956 · 17/05/2020 13:05

Nope, all them city folks should stay where they are, entirely their fault for living in the city anyway... at least until we can open the loos and the cafes and the gift shops and carparks and make some money out of them!
agree Billy also hope these who live in AONB NEVER want to come to our cities malls for that special dress etc as maybe we don't want them here either

CuriousaboutSamphire · 17/05/2020 13:08

Given the particularly gruesome details and the distance the 2 had travelled I don't really care if every other human being on the planet makes the Dali Lama look like a profligate wastrel.

CuriousaboutSamphire · 17/05/2020 13:12

That's the one, Vivienne

I don't live far away and have friends who live far closer. It has caused a lot of very insular responses in an already insular, usually cut off and much forgotten area.

And a lot of very dark humour.

MoaningMinniee · 17/05/2020 13:17

I live in an AONB that's within easy grand day out reach of London. Since the rules were relaxed, the litter including grim bits of loo roll behind bushes has shot up, and the narrow lanes are regularly choked because people keep parking in passing spaces and field gates. Horses being fed inappropriately. Livestock disturbed by loose dogs. I dream of every vehicle that comes off at the nearest motorway junction being stopped and everyone in it being forced to pass a test on The Countryside Code before they can proceed! I know it's not possible but I do find it shocking how many otherwise sensible people do not realise that the countryside is a living and working place not a petting zoo or theme park.

GreytExpectations · 17/05/2020 13:30

@CuriousaboutSamphire how ignorant can you be? Are you legitimately suggesting all people from the city have dark agendas when they visit the countryside?

CuriousaboutSamphire · 17/05/2020 13:33

Try reading what I did type....

... and maybe consider what it feels like to know the police are still searching the area looking for more...

GreytExpectations · 17/05/2020 13:45

*Try reading what I did type....

... and maybe consider what it feels like to know the police are still searching the area looking for more...*

I completely understand what you have said. Yes that's awful but how is that relevant to this thread? Oh thats right, you are suggesting the "city folk" are all murderers coming to dispose of dead bodies? You sound ridiculous and very very ignorant. I've had country people come to our city and one was found out the be a pedophile, so by your logic I shouldn't want any country people in my town.

CuriousaboutSamphire · 17/05/2020 13:49

Erm... never mind!

GreytExpectations · 17/05/2020 13:52

Clearly you aren't capable of realising how ridiculous you are being so instead of actually owning up to that and explaining your biased viewpoints you are just backing down. Nice but I'm not suprised one but, you seem that type @CuriousaboutSamphire

HavelockVetinari · 17/05/2020 13:52

Not that that's a reason to avoid the countryside though, its owned by us all and luckily isn't restricted to those who live there, in the same way that city hospitals aren't reserved for locals.

GreytExpectations · 17/05/2020 13:56

So I imagine all you country folks who are precious about boundaries never dare come into any major city for use of shops, hospitals or other facilities? Its ours don't you know? You shouldn't have chosen to live in the rural countryside if you wanted to have access to city resources.

Oh and also, once a country person came to my city and they were arrested for being a pedophile so we don't want ANY country person in our city, you know just incase....

AntiHop · 17/05/2020 14:04

Yabu. We don't have a car so we're not doing this. But I totally understand why people are driving for a day out after being cooped up.

MuthaClucker · 17/05/2020 14:07

Like it or not, the only bits of land we own are the ones outlined on our deeds.

thecatsthecats · 17/05/2020 14:10

I wonder if the mental health of those in AONBs is better or worse than those in dreary suburbs or the inner city.

My parents live in a highly isolated place and did go a bit doolally at one point, however beautiful the views.

I live close to a huge and beautiful park and paid the premium to be here, but by the same token I can access it at any time of day. Naturally I pick when it's quiet. Having wandered as far as some of the more down at heel areas locally, I can't blame people for coming to my part of town. There's a balance to it all, and I'd stick indoors for the main part of the day during the weekend in an AONB, which isn't so bad when I spend the whole week there.

tinkywinkyshandbag · 17/05/2020 14:10

I also live in a popular tourist spot in an AONB. Exactly the same situation here, I could have written your post. It makes me angry and depressed all at the same time.

CuriousaboutSamphire · 17/05/2020 14:22

I seem that type? Grin

I'm a little upset, disconcerted about recent happening. In posted as it seemed a reasonable, if macabre, addition to the misunderstanding many people who live in urban areas make about rural spaces. They aren't empty, just there for leisure, the photo opportunity (the disposal of bodies). People live and work in them!

I didn't say anything along the lines of all city dwellers are murderers, just that, as far as I am concerned, given all of the current events, I'd like it if you all stayed home!

Of course I expected the "well I hope you never want to shop for a dress" responses, they are as daft and blinkered as my post was. HOWEVER, I have reason to feel as I do at the moment...

... and that's as a bystander. God only knows how the poor woman's family will feel, whenever they manage to identify her.

understandmenow · 17/05/2020 14:28

I didn't say anything along the lines of all city dwellers are murderers, just that, as far as I am concerned, given all of the current events, I'd like it if you all stayed home!

I don't care what you'd like, I care about government guidelines and what I like!

Can I travel to exercise for as long as I like? Yes

Great then let's get in the car and go!

It's a free country (now we're not locked down)!

CuriousaboutSamphire · 17/05/2020 14:31

Come visit then, just don't leave anything behind you!

And maybe steer clear of the FoD for a little while longer.

nokidshere · 17/05/2020 14:31

2 city folk came to dispose of a body in our AONB this week. You can all fuck off, as far as I am concerned

I wonder if you have any idea of how thick that makes you sound?

People have been dumping bodies in the countryside for years and I'm pretty sure this wasn't the first time a body/bodies have been found in the FOD.

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