What is local?

[Ifihadapoundd]

What do the government class as local? We live 6miles away from a national Trust (would have to drive there) would this be allowed or not?

All details on gov.uk

You must not leave your home unless you have a reasonable excuse (for example, for work or education purposes). If you need to travel you should stay local – meaning avoiding travelling outside of your village, town or the part of a city where you live – and look to reduce the number of journeys you make overall. The list of reasons you can leave your home and area include, but are not limited to:

work, where you cannot reasonably work from home
accessing education and for caring responsibilities
visiting those in your support bubble – or your childcare bubble for childcare
visiting hospital, GP and other medical appointments or visits where you have had an accident or are concerned about your health
buying goods or services that you need, but this should be within your local area wherever possible
outdoor exercise. This should be done locally wherever possible, but you can travel a short distance within your area to do so if necessary (for example, to access an open space)

Just go and if you get stopped, say sorry I didn't realise. Then don't do it again. They can't put an exact figure on 'local' as local in an urban area could be a 1 mile radius but someone living in the middle of nowhere the 'local' store could be 10 miles away.

A “local area” is defined as “the village, town, or part of the city where you live”.

So it depends on where it is in relation to you, not a distance. If it's in your town, you're fine. If it's not, you're not.

It wouldn't be fair to set a mile radius, as some places would have masses of options within a mile, but some would have none. Most settlement styles will have a shop, etc.

It up to interpretation but I'd consider that local if you are going for a walk for exercise.

I would call 6 miles local but there is no specific rule about distance.

In Scotland it's 5 miles for excersise and recreation so I would think 6 is up to interpretation isn't it. People are looking for things to do so will bend the rules to suit.

Outwith local area is what I meant.

but you can travel a short distance within your area to do so if necessary (for example, to access an open space)

You’d be ok I think.

the old rule from end April travel for far less time then you undertake exercise is good enough for me.

It is technically the neighbouring village but is only about 10/15mins away via car. May see how we get on with finding local walks then give it a go if they don't work.
So hard to find things to do with a 5 year old and a 2year old that aren't by any main roads.

If it's 10/15 mins away by car, it doesn't sound local to me. Also, you say a neighbouring village, so not your own village or town. Case numbers are high and will continue increasing for a while yet, so personally I wouldn't do it.

I am relieved that the government has clarified 'local' this time to be your own village, town or part of city.

Living in a National Park, we were inundated during the last lockdowns by people who thought we were their 'local', even though they lived a good drive or cycle away in towns and cities, often in different counties and with higher infection rates. I really hope that the combination of the clarification of 'local' and the winter weather means we will have to endure less covidiots and I suspect many people living at the coast feel the same. Our essential services are far and few at the best of times.

A good rule of thumb would be: If you drive somewhere can you walk home if you break down or will you be calling someone out and risking them.

As someone who lives in an AONB, we undoubtedly had people coming to 'exercise' from long distances during Lockdown One. The guideline that your journey time should be far less than your 'exercise' time helped a bit, although I'm pretty certain some bright sparks justified travelling well over an hour and a half (journey time from London to here) as they were planning on a whole day ramble.

In normal times, I regard 'local' in this rural area as anywhere within a ten to fifteen mile radius. In professional terms, I have regular clients who live up to this sort of distance away from me.

@Lottie4

If it's 10/15 mins away by car, it doesn't sound local to me. Also, you say a neighbouring village, so not your own village or town. Case numbers are high and will continue increasing for a while yet, so personally I wouldn't do it.

But two small villages nearby but separated by a mile or so of green space could be the same size combined as a town. I live in suburb of a medium sized town, it used to be a village and there are some fields in between although mostly built up along the road, so is it the same town or not? Own village, own town, it's not always as simple as it sounds. My daughter lives in a tiny village that has no shop, it feels like the middle of nowhere but it's just over 10 minutes drive from my house with a lot of agricultural land in between.

@QueenOfLabradors

As someone who lives in an AONB, we undoubtedly had people coming to 'exercise' from long distances during Lockdown One. The guideline that your journey time should be far less than your 'exercise' time helped a bit, although I'm pretty certain some bright sparks justified travelling well over an hour and a half (journey time from London to here) as they were planning on a whole day ramble.

In normal times, I regard 'local' in this rural area as anywhere within a ten to fifteen mile radius. In professional terms, I have regular clients who live up to this sort of distance away from me.

I agree with your logic. I can be in the Peak District in 15 or 20 minutes, it feels local.

another good rule would be - will you be out long enough that you will need toilet facilities? If yes, then you have gone too far for too long. Some people can't do any distance without toilet facilities and need to take that risk if they are ever going to get out but as public toilets are high infection risk areas no one should be taking the risk of using them if they don't need to as long as we are in this emergency situation.

I drove 25 miles to the dentist today. My dentist is in the town I used to work in before redundancy last year. Probably too far really. Just one of those things one needs to make a judgement call on.

Still can't work out why i can still see both the dentist and hygienist and not get my eyebrows waxed.

As with anything else, it's open to interpretation. I wouldn't have any qualms about driving up to ten miles or so for a different walk.

@time4anothername public toilets are high infection risk areas? Do you have any evidence for that? They are mostly well ventilated due to open door and everyone washes hands after visiting.

I go out daily. I've used public toilets on most of my trips out (sorry, 4 children, keen tea drinker, long distance exerciser). I've not caught covid yet...

Mostly public loos are entirely empty of anyone else.

DH has gone out on a 15 mile walk, I daresay he will go behind a tree. Obviously checking that no one else is around first

I think 6 miles is local. There was another thread on here where the NT property was 10 miles away and I think that still counts as local. My son's 6th form college is 12 miles away so I would take that as being my boundary for "local".

The guidance says something about staying in your village or part of your city, well that's all very well but a village might only have about 3 houses and your part of a city may have no parks.

In some areas of Germany they've introduced a 15km rule I think which would be a bit less than my 12 miles.

Living in a National Park, we were inundated during the last lockdowns by people who thought we were their 'local', even though they lived a good drive or cycle away in towns and cities The problem is you can be living in a town on the edge of a city, and your local infection rates are as low as the surrounding countryside. Your local park is jam-packed with people, and it seems a lot safer to drive a few miles and get up on to the moors where you will see no-one all day. Of course that logic goes out of the window when you decide instead to drive to one of the local "honeypot" sites which is every bit as crowded as your local park.

Still can't work out why i can still see both the dentist and hygienist and not get my eyebrows waxed. Because both dentist and hygienist are important to maintaining dental health, whereas bushy eyebrows are not a health danger.

All the parks in my area are quite small and always so busy, in my eyes it would be safer to travel to the NT, which is purely just a field and lived in by anyone (no houses)

The toilets are open so if anyone did need a wee I would just ensure we were all clean about it.