The South West is on course to be locked down next

[Tellmetruth4]

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.cityam.com/coronavirus-in-england-whats-the-r-number-for-your-area/amp/%3futm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2020%2520Five%2520at%25205

According to the data, the South West’s R number is the same as the North West at +1. Will local councils be trying to sort it before the government impose official stricter lockdown measures as in the NW?

The beach we are at (north Cornwall) is significantly quieter than usual. It has a small car park and no parking nearby in the very small bay - no streets as such, just a B road going through. The campsites nearby are open only in a very limited way. There are about 35 houses in the bay. So that seems to limit the number of people. Once the car park is full, there really is nowhere else to park. Also, is narrow and deep bay, which means space on the beach itself is very much tide-dependent.

Went into the local town the day before yesterday and people were masked up in shops but not walking around. It was too busy still for my liking, but definitely not as busy as usual, going by the car parks.

If it gets too much in Cornwall they could always ask Culdrose to do some "training flights" above the beaches. Those helicopters can whip up a mighty sandstorm.

What is and isn't being closed/locked down is very logical even if it doesn't seem so on safety grounds - of course going to the pub isn't safer than sitting in Auntie Pat's garden, but sitting in Auntie Pat's garden isn't generating a profit for anyone.

Banning families celebrating Eid together isn't affecting anyone's profit margin so it's an easy way for the Government to reduce contacts.
Shutting Wetherspoons would upset a lot of important people

They know they can't reopen everything. Government is going to prioritise children in school, people on public transport, workers in offices, spending in shops.

To do that they need to sacrifice all the non-profit making activities - seeing your family, visiting friends, picnics in the park.

It's about priorities.

So this was yesterday at about 11am. I do realise though that fridays and Saturdays tend to be changeover days so perhaps that was a factor. Second photo is from Monday I think. Back of beach busier because people seem terrified of wet sand.

They really need to be more accurate with their definition of “South West”. It’s quite misleading really

Lol. My Plymouth-born friend reckons Dorset is in the south-east. All my London or Sussex-born friends think it's in the SW.

‘Tesco delivery booked and we're jot interested in shops or restaurants while we're there’

Worst kind of holiday maker! You don’t even plan to support the local economy, just Tesco! No wonder residents hate you.

Great, thanks a lot. We're trying to be responsible actually.

Does the Southwest have lots of people in it who vote Conservative? If so then I doubt it will happen
An MP local to us (in one of the recent re - lockdown areas)is blaming the Asian community. Well I don’t see many non white people on those beaches or in the photos of people out drinking in Manchester last night!
Also, I think that in general the predominantly Asian areas being blamed are Labour controlled, funny that

I have family in Cornwall and it sounds like a nightmare, I’m so worried.

Really shocked to read that William and Kate are currently on holiday in Cornwall (travelling by private jet ), it’s so irresponsible of them. They should be setting a good example, not encouraging people to run off on holiday to such a badly hit area. The last thing Cornwall needs is more tourism right now.

I think they are going by cases per 100,000 rather than the R rate now as that's what I keep seeing in the reports.

We cannot stay locked up for ever; the economy will be shot to pieces, families ruined financially and people will go stir crazy. Everyone will die of something sometime .... flu, cancer, car crash, being stabbed, old age. I just get on with my life how I want to.

Residents will just have to decide then wont they parrot. Do they want holiday makers "spreading their germs" or not? Because the messages coming out of the sw are very mixed. Perhaps they'd prefer people just send them the money and stay home?

Beaches might not be a problem ,but I was watching the news yesterday and they were interviewing people who had travelled to.beaches on packed trains they said they were packed in like sardines,it was the hottest day of the year yesterday quite apart from COVID ,that can't of been a fun experience travelling for a couple of hours on a packed train!

I'm in a city in the SW, single figures numbers out of 180,000 population; our R would vary widely from week to week, still very low cases.

@blurpityblurp they’re on Scilly (Tesco )

Well his father does own the islands

We are on our way back home from 2 weeks in the south west, one on Cornwall and one in Dorset. We've had one of the best holidays we've ever had.

We've eaten out a few times, but always sat outside. Places had one way systems, sanitiser, spaced out tables, track and trace.

In Cornwall everywhere felt pretty quiet. We just went to the beach local to our campsite which wasn't busy but is a bit off the beaten track, and we did visit lost gardens of heligan and Eden project- had to book a slot for Both and so neither felt busy.

In Dorset there was plenty of space on the beaches at Lyme Regis, Charmouth, Seatown and Hive.

We went to Charmouth beach twice but got there early (as in 7am) for fossil
Hunting. But the time we left at 10
Is it was getting busy but like PP have said, if you walked along the beach a bit alway from
The car park there was plenty of space.

Returning Home in glorious Northumberland where we have lovely spacious beaches too.

@quizqueen you sound exactly like one of my neighbours. He "wasnt going to let any virus make him stop living his life". Died in April of COVID, probably with a look of outrage when he realised the virus didnt care about British pluck and the bulldog spirit.

The south west also covers Swindon, which has had some significant outbreaks which the council has said is community transition.

Yes even in non Covid years why go to the most popular & packed beaches on the hottest day of the year

Especially in Cornwall, where there are so many tiny beaches and coves that are virtually empty. We've found some fantastic beaches purely on spec, and with the assistance of an OS map (although in fairness we've also headed off on foot to what we think may be an accessible beach, only to discover that a recent rockfall has rendered it inaccessible).

Still, if most people congregate on the popular, well-known beaches, it leaves the others for the rest of us.

And 1 or 2 muppets have expressed surprise that it’s being enforced as they’ve come on holiday to get away from all this Covid stuff

DSis lives in Cornwall, and told me this on the phone the other night. Her friend owns a gift shop and has hand sanitizer by the door and so many people refuse to use it or wear masks and say exactly what you said in your post. Apparently it’s not just the British though, she has had Americans and other Europeans in saying the same. Shocking attitude.

Another Cornish resident here. The beaches aren’t so much of an issue, although we aren’t going because they are not pleasant places to be when they are so crowded. I’m more worried about the toilets at the beach, and the towns etc. And the people who say things like “Isn’t it nice to be on holiday and not have to worry about the virus.” As I overheard someone saying in my local town yesterday.
Love tourists, just not the ones who don’t pack their brain and seem to think that either the virus won’t cross the Tamar or that the virus will know they are on holiday and not either infect them, or leave the, to infect others.

William and Kate are NOT on holiday in Cornwall mainland. They are in the Isles of Scilly.

As others have said, the South West is a vast area. I live in rural Somerset, so definitely SW, but it is further from here to Truro than it is from here to Birmingham! The peninsula is very looooooong.

We have had precisely ZERO recorded cases of corona in the "ward" my village belongs to and although the local major hospital in Taunton has had some deaths the numbers are pretty low. We have had several periods I think where not a single new case has been recorded in the area. That doesn't mean I'm complacent.

There is of course a vast difference between where I am and the tourist hotspots, so I hope they don't see a spike, but I don't think we are anywhere near "lockdown" yet.

Swindon has had 2 positive at Royal mail, 4 in the Fire station,1 in Honda and 64 in an Iceland distribution centre.
How they can say its 'community spread' is beyond me as it all in work places.

Indeed, but that’s what they are saying.

It was on the BBC News this morning that the R rate is less relevant when cases are very low and other factors are also used.

We went to South Cornwall last week for holiday and to visit DF who lives there, wasn't that packed though the small beaches were fairly busy as the weather was nice but I think it was just before the school holidays though loads of families were there, we don't go to the beach and prefer to walk along the coastal path which wasn't busy.