How are you interpreting ‘local travel for exercise’ ?

[Bubbinsmakesthree]

If you’re in England’s lockdown, how are you interpreting the guidance that we are allowed to travel in the local area for exercise?

We live in the London suburbs - all that is around locally are a few parks and playgrounds which have been pretty busy. But if we drive for about 30mins we’ve got access to huge amounts of outdoor space - woodland, national trust parkland - that will be much quieter and easier to get fresh air away from other people.

I’m just not sure what is in the spirit of the new rules?

We went to an NT place 30mins away yesterday - we passed another more local country park and cars were backed up onto the road trying to get in the overflowing car park. Apparently the local park in walking distance was absolutely packed yesterday too. So overall I’d rather travel further to a place with more space and managed numbers than crowd into somewhere just for the sake of it being more local. At least with NT bookings you know you’re not turning up and creating a problem.

Yes, we also went to a National Trust place as it is booked so no problems with overcrowding or not being able to park, also you can be sure that the toilets are open. We have used the National Trust loads this year

We’ve had more value from our NT membership this year than any other - considering I was cursing the fact we’d only recently renewed when lockdown first happened, it’s actually been a blessing!

As a PP sss as I’d is guidelines not the law. I regularly drive 2 hours to a beach and will continue to.

We've been out 30 mins and 45 mins away to our usual places. Usual number of people for weather and time of year. No sign of barbecues, wild camping, cars parked in stupid places, mess or large groups. Everyone going about and doing their usual activities and keeping away from each other.

Half an hour or so. We live rurally but have to travel to find appropriate parking and dog friendly areas... harder than you might think in a forest!!

@Sockwomble

We've been out 30 mins and 45 mins away to our usual places. Usual number of people for weather and time of year. No sign of barbecues, wild camping, cars parked in stupid places, mess or large groups. Everyone going about and doing their usual activities and keeping away from each other.

I think this was the concern people in rural areas had in summer, it's was genuinely frightening how many people descended on the countryside who clearly had no respect for it or the people living there.

I understand that many people were just trying to replace their annual holiday abroad with something else and make the best of the situation and the glorious weather but they weren't the ones who then had to spend the next few months cleaning up the mess and fixing the damage where it could be fixed.

There's some parts of the countryside that really need closing off for the winter to allow some recovery from the huge footfall of people over summer. But that will never happen.

We go to the Lake District NP and where we go there was little difference from a normal summer. A few people camping in vans in car parks but out on walks very few people about. I heard about problems in a few obvious places but they tended to be 'localish' people on days out not people on holiday.

Scrowy, same with my suburban private road - packed to the gills with walkers, mostly lovely people although I pick up the dog waste, drugs stuff, other litter and used face masks and rubber gloves so not so lovely on the waste front. I would like a break from them. Hopefully we will get some very cold and constantly rainig weather shortly which will stop them walking up here. Now the golf club is shut we could close the whole estate as it is private but that would be difficult for delivery drivers so I am not in favour of it.

This year I have hardly been anywhere - visit to Bristol to my sons before lock down in March, visit to my daughters in inner London and I think nothing else so only three trips further than a mile from the house - ah y es I did view a property 30 minutes away so that's four and the council tip is about 20 mins drive and been there a bit. Not a very exciting year.

I think your perception of 'local' will be related to what you normally do- ie if you usually travel 30 minutes for a hike on the weekend it will seem 'local' to you.

We live in the same kind of area as the OP and we are blessed with some fantastic local green spaces- a walk or bike ride away- but this being London they were rammed this weekend with the glorious weather. We don't have a car, but given the guidance this time doesn't say not to use public transport we took a totally empty train 20 minutes to some wilder space for a hike. Last time we stayed within cycling distance (although we also still went to work).

I drove 25 mins the other day to a massive woodland. It’s so big it’s never crowded. Which seems more sensible than going to a nearer, busier park.

I think as long as there aren’t repeated scenes of hundreds of people descending on Snowdon, a beach, etc then it’s ok.

Our nearest NT which is 5 minutes away still hasn’t reopened.
Is a 20 mile journey reasonable as that opens up a lot of NT options for us.
We got life membership for Christmas last year and we’ve used it loads too.

Our nearest hasn't reopened but most we use are 20-40 miles away and I would go to any of those at the moment, we have been nearly every week as we have a choice of about 5 within this distance.

@JacobReesMogadishu

I drove 25 mins the other day to a massive woodland. It’s so big it’s never crowded. Which seems more sensible than going to a nearer, busier park.

I think as long as there aren’t repeated scenes of hundreds of people descending on Snowdon, a beach, etc then it’s ok.

That's why I wouldn't drive off major distances to places like the Lakes or Snowdonia. I know them but not brilliantly enough not to know the quieter places to divert off to if the world and his dog turns up (plus it's a few hours of driving either end). In my nearest National Park, I can find a more suitable spot or turn around and head home if neceessary.

But there's no great virtue in staying on your doorstep (plus the local fields are clagging into viscous, squelchy clay quite rapidly!)

I think there’s more risk in the whole congregating in the local park than some of them driving out for 30 minutes - I think what you’re doing is fine

I drove 30 mins for ds2 to have a 1-1 session with his goalkeeping coach (so easy to socially distance) - I think this was fine.

I think the problem for us is the vast number of people who consider our county and National Park to be local or local-ish and coming from areas with higher virus rates. It is no overstatement to say we get many millions of day visitors. In normal times this is less of a problem, but in the first lockdown once Boris eased the advice on travel for exercise it certainly was as bad as reported. It's true that holidaymakers are usually less of a problem, although the first lockdown wildcampers and campervans in car parks, laybys, roadsides, woods and so on usually were a problem, unfortunately. I'm usually praying for nice weather but not so much this month, which is a pity because we all need a break from our own four walls, wherever we live.