What would you like to hear from Boris Johnson's announcement on Sunday evening?

[GB]

Dentists can't function to any material consent because most of the treatments involve an 'aerosol' spray - ie small water droplets which hang in the air.

Therefore, while they could have stayed open for check ups, they wouldn't have been able to do any treatment, and frankly there was no point.

Some 'urgent care' centres have been set up with staff in full PPE.

Thanks

 

[yorksrob]

Yes, I get that - it might be permissible for people in really rural locations to be able to travel further for the reason you indicate but ten, maybe fifteen, miles is sufficient for most people to have a varied mix of attractions, countryside and urban experience.

I still think that there's a much greater likelihood of having friends and family within fifty miles than 10.

 

[bramling]

Do you have evidence of rule breaking?

Anyway you're out of luck:

Coronavirus: Garden centres in England to reopen next week

Stores following social distancing can reopen from Wednesday, a senior government source says.

www.bbc.co.uk

If there are any garden centres open I'd like to know where, as certainly none near me. I certainly thing getting those open is not a bad thing, providing we can avoid the "frenzy" seen at places like B&Q. Fortunately we had some garden jobs left over from last year to be getting on with over the last week, but there's a limit to how many bee hives one can install without posts to put them on...

 

[Qwerty133]

Do you have evidence of rule breaking?

Anyway you're out of luck:

Coronavirus: Garden centres in England to reopen next week

Stores following social distancing can reopen from Wednesday, a senior government source says.

www.bbc.co.uk

Only on local Facebook groups which are not publicly accessible.

 

[JonathanH]

I still think that there's a much greater likelihood of having friends and family within fifty miles than 10.

I could see the merits in having an exemption for longer-distance travel to see friends and family at their dwelling place provided no other location was visited outside the immediate restriction area. Difficult to police admittedly.

 

[james60059]

For purely selfish reasons, I want to be able to go out doing proper spotting again and not timing my "once a day" walk with something out of the ordinary running

 

[Bletchleyite]

I can't say I noticed any extra traffic on the road today to be fair. Travelling into work this afternoon (after being absolutely begged to come in for the weekend due to a short-notice absence!) the motorway was fairly empty, the most conspicuous traffic was vans. Even the London end was fairly quiet.

Perhaps everyone was in Brighton at the time!

I was going to say the same - MK is very, very quiet, a bit Christmas Day or New Year's Day esque. Maybe everyone's gone to the seaside

 

[Bletchleyite]

For purely selfish reasons, I want to be able to go out doing proper spotting again and not timing my "once a day" walk with something out of the ordinary running

Go for a walk with a folding stool in your bag and sit in a field near a line miles away from anywhere. Nobody will notice, let alone care.

 

[Yew]

The radius is going to have to be considerably less than 50 miles. I think I would go for 10 miles - that is enough for everyone to get out into local countryside and local attractions. 50 miles means that a lot of people can get to Brighton for example.

I think a little larger would help ease concentration around cities, and allow travel to niche activities that otherwise would be under-utilised: ski slopes, velodromes, rowing lakes, climbing walls, are some off the cuff examples

 

[bramling]

Go for a walk with a folding stool in your bag and sit in a field near a line miles away from anywhere. Nobody will notice, let alone care.

Spot on.

 

[yorkie]

The radius is going to have to be considerably less than 50 miles. I think I would go for 10 miles - that is enough for everyone to get out into local countryside and local attractions. 50 miles means that a lot of people can get to Brighton for example.

How long do you think a 10 mile limit for discretionary travel could be viable for?

Only on local Facebook groups which are not publicly accessible.

I'll take it with a pinch of salt then!

 

[james60059]

Go for a walk with a folding stool in your bag and sit in a field near a line miles away from anywhere. Nobody will notice, let alone care.

Easier said than done, apparently an enthusiast got pinched at Frinkley Lane a couple of weeks back by the Police for watching trains, if you've been to FL, you'll know yourself it's in the middle of nowhere practically and social distancing is easy, however the Police said it was "non-essential" activity. How he was reported I don't know however.

 

[yorkie]

Easier said than done, apparently an enthusiast got pinched at Frinkley Lane a couple of weeks back by the Police for watching trains, if you've been to FL, you'll know yourself it's in the middle of nowhere practically and social distancing is easy, however the Police said it was "non-essential" activity. How he was reported I don't know however.

This is an example of where the law needs to change. And I think it will.

 

[Ianno87]

No. But I suspect the post you replied to meant "those psychologically needing human contact", as those who physically can't do their job from home can indeed still go to work.

I'm thinking some combination of:
-Those with a poor home workplace set up (e.g. working off a kitchen table or the sofa without proper chair, monitor height etc)
-Those with a excessively distracting home environment (e.g. young kids)
-Those otherwise living alone and socially isolated

 

[Fawkes Cat]

A little late to the party here, but to answer the headline question:

1) Testing to be ramped up (both in numbers tested and speed of processing) to give a near-to realtime (maybe within 24 hours, but the nearer to realtime the better) view of the current infection and rate of infection position
2) reopening of activities and locations currently considered not to raise the R0 rate above - so we think that they are activities that won't increase the number of infections.
3) (2) (and existing restrictions) to be under constant review in the light of (1). If infection is starting to go up, then shut back down. If infection is falling, then open up a bit more.

 

[PTR 444]

10 miles wouldn't even give access to any level of shopping facilities for some rural people so is of little use as a generic rule. 50 miles is perfectly doable in most circumstances, and would always be possible to bring in local restrictions if it was making social distancing impossible.

I don’t know if this would be more complicated but rather than have a blanket radius for people (which will involve a lot of overlap), I think a better idea would be to designate a series of “key towns” across the country, and ensure that residents only travel as far as their nearest town in the list. That way, you can define potential borders away from key towns in the event that local lockdowns are required.

 

[RealTrains07]

I would like to hear on sunday that mass gatherings are banned until September

it would make sense considering similar action taken by France and Ireland when they began the process of lifting lockdowns

 

[Qwerty133]

I don’t know if this would be more complicated but rather than have a blanket radius for people (which will involve a lot of overlap), I think a better idea would be to designate a series of “key towns” across the country, and ensure that residents only travel as far as their nearest town in the list. That way, you can define potential borders away from key towns in the event that local lockdowns are required.

Nearest in what sense?
For many the nearest large town in terms of distance will be dfferent to that in terms of time to drive to and possibly different again for easiest to get to on public transport.

 

[bramling]

Easier said than done, apparently an enthusiast got pinched at Frinkley Lane a couple of weeks back by the Police for watching trains, if you've been to FL, you'll know yourself it's in the middle of nowhere practically and social distancing is easy, however the Police said it was "non-essential" activity. How he was reported I don't know however.

I'd suspect what's happened is that the lane concerned (it isn't quite in the middle of nowhere as there's housing within a mile or so) has been being used as a local exercise route, and someone has taken exception to the fact that they've seen the same person at the crossing for a period of time. It doesn't quite meet the OP's description of a field in the middle of nowhere, as there's a road leading there. The sort of places the OP envisaged will no doubt be those involving a reasonable walk having left the roads. The police simply won't be chasing people across fields.

 

[PTR 444]

Nearest in what sense?
For many the nearest large town in terms of distance will be dfferent to that in terms of time to drive to and possibly different again for easiest to get to on public transport.

It would probably be based on postcode areas so for example, anywhere in the BH area would have Bournemouth as it’s key town. You would have situations however where two villages only a few miles apart would have completely different key towns, which is why I think some borders should be different to those of postcode areas.

 

[yorksrob]

I could see the merits in having an exemption for longer-distance travel to see friends and family at their dwelling place provided no other location was visited outside the immediate restriction area. Difficult to police admittedly.

That would be an improvement on the current situation.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Easier said than done, apparently an enthusiast got pinched at Frinkley Lane a couple of weeks back by the Police for watching trains, if you've been to FL, you'll know yourself it's in the middle of nowhere practically and social distancing is easy, however the Police said it was "non-essential" activity. How he was reported I don't know however.

I was thinking off the road. Police aren't going to walk miles down an isolated footpath unless they've really got nothing better to do.

 

[MDB1images]

Aside from the usual things you'd expect to hear I wonder if a phased opening up of society would allow something along the lines of the following pastimes/sport carried out locally(say wiithin a 5 mile radius) would help.

-Fishing.
-Golf
-Tennis.

None appeal to me but from an outsider looking in they seem to fit social distancing rules and help people keep fit/relax.

Equally someone watching trains in a field or area away from anyone else would also help some relax with little risk and offer a 'get out' especially if we start increasing people going back to work as some people need a release valve of a hobby or activity from work.

The problems with all of those is it could increase traffic but that argument applies to Garden Centres and the like.

 

[Qwerty133]

It would probably be based on postcode areas so for example, anywhere in the BH area would have Bournemouth as it’s key town. You would have situations however where two villages only a few miles apart would have completely different key towns, which is why I think some borders should be different to those of postcode areas.

Realistically post towns are not a good proxy of key towns. Loughborough and Nuneaton residents would be able to visit Leicester and Coventry respectively whereas there are areas up north where the 'key town' were much smaller.

 

[yorkie]

Interesting idea but no way is that going to happen; imagine living in Darton. You could visit Sheffield but not Wakefield!

I want to know when I can play 6-a-side football outdoors; this is technically a contact sport but any contact is minimal. The wellbeing and health benefits are far greater than any risks.

And I am keen to be able to go on walks or cycle rides with other forum members, again this is very low risk.

I'm genuinely interested, if you've got any good articles discussing this 17 million figure.
(For reference, I'm not being accusation or disputing things, good information is so hard to find!)

It's 1.5 million

 

[northernchris]

The effect of this would be reduced if they said something like "discretionary travel is now allowed but only within a 50 mile radius of your home", which is sort of what the French have done (100km).

I like the idea of this, but it would increase public transport use. If the government and operators believe a train can only carry around 10% of its usual capacity, then for a 2 car 158 as an example that's only 14-25 passengers depending on if they are counting seating capacity or overall but even so that's not many. When I was out on my walk earlier I observed a bus where all bays of seats on the lower deck were occupied with 1 passenger, if trains could operate under this policy it would enable more people to travel whilst still largely adhering to WHO guidelines of keeping 1 metre apart

 

[yorkie]

I like the idea of this, but it would increase public transport use. If the government and operators believe a train can only carry around 10% of its usual capacity, then for a 2 car 158 as an example that's only 14-25 passengers depending on if they are counting seating capacity or overall but even so that's not many. When I was out on my walk earlier I observed a bus where all bays of seats on the lower deck were occupied with 1 passenger, if trains could operate under this policy it would enable more people to travel whilst still largely adhering to WHO guidelines of keeping 1 metre apart

We meed to move to the 1m model as 2m is increasingly obviously unworkable.

 

[bramling]

We meed to move to the 1m model as 2m is increasingly obviously unworkable.

I can’t see it happening, it’s become too ingrained now. The only exception might be with compulsory masks, and even that’s possibly only likely to happen in specific environments like transport.

Standing on a platform earlier and seeing the 2m markers which have appeared since I was last there, 2 metres really isn’t a lot unfortunately.

 

[O8yityityit]

I was thinking off the road. Police aren't going to walk miles down an isolated footpath unless they've really got nothing better to do.

Perhaps train driver reported him.

 

[HLE]

I seriously doubt that.