Pensioner gets visit from police over socially distanced cup of tea.

[MercyBooth]

www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2021-03-18/pensioner-given-covid-breach-warning-over-socially-distanced-cup-of-tea

Doesnt it make you glad to be alive.

No laws broken @ according to this. twitter.com/adamwagner1/status/1372589394272645121?s=21

@EYProvider i believe the phrase is "failed state"

Given where it happened someone has to have had a real bee in their bonnet to report it. You'd have to suspect a close neighbour who wasn't invited to tea!

And the police would have had quite a trip out to do it, Gloucester to Charlton King's?

Weird!

To be fair to the police here, we don't know what was reported.

The police investigated as they're duty bound to do - not sure if their approach was right at the property, but we only have one side of the story anyway and it's told through a reporter's eyes and they NEVER dress things up do they??

No fines were issued, no cautions, no arrests.

Perspective folks!

Agree it's a step too far. However, I live fairly close to this location and know the police have been very vigilant locally due to local newspaper reports I've read and the fact they've been driving around regularly in our area and quieter roads on the edge in countryside. Also, DD was stopped by the police (late at night on way home from work) and asked if she'd seen three youths seen hanging around together.
We're very boring in the area and I don't know of anyone breaking the restrictions, so I guess, although it seems like an awful thing to do, someone was frustrated seeing something that didn't seem right.

Socialising with people from other households in your garden is illegal at the moment and that's what was reported

A communal garden? What are they meant to do, draw up a fucking roster?

This petty bollocks has got to stop.

MIL lives in one of these. They have their own self contained flats and a communal garden. FIL died 2 weeks ago and was in hospital for 3 weeks before that. I think sitting in the garden daily with her neighbours has probably kept her sane. I can't imagine if she'd spent the last 5 weeks in her flat alone. The world has gone completely mad.

This petty bollocks has got to stop.

Agree

@MaxNormal

Socialising with people from other households in your garden is illegal at the moment and that's what was reported

A communal garden? What are they meant to do, draw up a fucking roster?

Were the police aware it was a communal garden??

I can't imagine that fact was included in the report they received.

Lighthearted : Obviously, a ‘gateway’ brew.

Given the address yes, the police would have known what kind of house and what kind of garden. Or a very quick Google would have told them that!

They had almost 10 hours to check. The offending beverage was drunk at lunchtime. She was in bed by the time they went out. This lady and one of the other miscreants had to persuade the police not to knock on another door, by which time it would have been 11pm or later, as the also 80+ year old lady was in poor heath and would be frightened.

It happened a couple of weeks ago. Local newspaper hasn't made anything more of it, oddly for them!

She wasn't having a SD cup of tea with neighbours.

She was sat in her own garden and so were the neighbours!

I also have a communal garden. It's very large and only 8 flats share it (total of 14 people).

It's part of the household. Therefore you cannot be restricted on your use of it.

Yep! That's pretty much it!

It makes me glad that I live in area where we have about 1 PC for each 15,000 residents.

My friend was raped two years ago and it's only unjust going to the cps.

If yourcraped and beaten that's fine, drink tea outside at a distance? Fuck me hang the witch!

Its lazy easy wins to scare the population and there is very little real policing anymore.

If the police really insisted on visiting they should have used some critical thinking and considered whether 9.45pm was an appropriate time to visit an elderly woman who lives alone.

Whoever manages the complex will need to come up with a rota for the garden quick smart, as otherwise the police will need to visit residents every day 🙄

Given the address yes, the police would have known what kind of house and what kind of garden. Or a very quick Google would have told them that!

You what??

You think the police have some database of which gardens are communal and which are not?

considered whether 9.45pm was an appropriate time to visit an elderly woman who lives alone

Again - what kind of info do you think the police have access to???

I sometimes think people confuse the UK police with the CIA lol

@itsgettingwierd

She wasn't having a SD cup of tea with neighbours.

She was sat in her own garden and so were the neighbours!

I also have a communal garden. It's very large and only 8 flats share it (total of 14 people).

It's part of the household. Therefore you cannot be restricted on your use of it.

It's part of the household. Therefore you cannot be restricted on your use of it.

Sorry that's nonsense - the garden isn't part of a household.

Do you think that everyone who lives on a private road can hold a huge road party as "one household"? Ditto for retirement parks etc etc

Your household is the people you live with, not share some land with.

It was a sheltered housing complex with a shared garden. So all the residents can use the garden. And yes the police would have known it was bloody sheltered housing. It's not hard for them to find that out.

When I read stuff like this I can only conclude that the police PR department either doesn’t exist or spends all day, every day, with their head in its hands.

If they’re not breaking up protests against violence to women by being violent to women, they’re on some blatant power trip (e.g. patrolling supermarket aisles for people buying “non-essential” products) or fining people for drinking tea with intent.

It's probably someone from the retirement block that did this, either through fear of catching it or just pettiness. It seems daft to report, socially distanced outside - I expect police felt shitty about responding but had to act on it.

Wow really ! I worry where police powers are going.

Maybe this person was the informer:

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/woman-threatens-man-car-social-distancing-video-a9631831.html%3famp

Not rub of course it is!!! A public road is not a private household. My flat and garden are part of what I own. The fact other flat owners also own the garden space too doesn't make it public space.

The garden is part of the household. The communal areas are part of your household. Your personal household is also part of your household.

Not one of my neighbours has come into my property but of course we've all use the shared areas of our property over a year. The law states remain in your own household. It doesn't state where you share some of your property with others you cannot use it!

FFS. What kind of spiteful, officious, sanctimonious arsehole actually reports people for this?

I’m getting pretty sick of hearing about the police ignoring crimes like burglary, fraud and rape and instead lazily going for easy targets.

Large traveller funeral with loads of people, where the police are likely to get a shoeing if they try and enforce the law? They stand by and let them get on with it. Likewise the large party in West London with hundreds of young people congregating. But two old ladies sitting outside in fresh air, no doubt further away from each other than I usually am from the joggers puffing past me on the local river walk? Go in and scare the bejesus out of them.

The police are in danger of losing the consent of the people if they keep this up. They really need to revisit their priorities.