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“Essential Travel”
Sillybilly
Posts: 9,236
Hope no one minds me posting this outside the main Covid19 thread as I can’t bring myself to read that lot and this is a pretty specific question. As a vulnerable person and a good citizen I am following the guidance pretty much to the letter but I’ve been struck by a few things in recent days that have made me curious or even angry. We are not allowed out other than for essential things like exercise or shopping for the basics. But I walk the dog from my house to Dartford Heath and I see the car parks overflowing. Is it or is it not permitted to stick the dog in the boot and drive to the place of exercise? If it is I’m off to Joyden’sWood as I'm bored stiff with the Heath now. I’d also love to get some bedding plants and I’d really like to support our local garden centres who’ve been stuffed right at the prime time of the year. Some are doing “safe” click and collect schemes. But is this really an “essential” reason for me to get in the car and potentially risk taking resources away from the NHS if I have an accident en route? Same question with regard to B&Q as I’m short of some paint for the decorating I’m doing. I’m less sorry for them than I am for the garden centres but the principle is the same. Moral dilemma. Thoughts please?
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Dont drive for exercise unless you have to2
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If you have to ask yourself whether something is essential or not then it's probably not19
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I agree. So why therefore are these “temptations” allowed?Leeds_Addick said:If you have to ask yourself whether something is essential or not then it's probably not1 -
Driving to take your dog for a walk is not essential.
i live 50 metres from Trosley country park and the amount of cars that were parked there yesterday was like a normal Sunday
There were groups of 3/4 people all wandering through the woods, it’s a joke.
i was stopped by a person with two little kids who asked me how they can get back to the car park cos they were lost. Unbelievable!1 -
I live 3 miles from the seafront and wouldn't even drive that, just walk where you live and keep away from anyone else.
Yes it might be boring but half of this stuff is boring, who cares? Safety that counts here.16 -
Don't drive your car to walk your dog, you're walking your dog round a park nearby, that's good enough.Sillybilly said:Hope no one minds me posting this outside the main Covid19 thread as I can’t bring myself to read that lot and this is a pretty specific question. As a vulnerable person and a good citizen I am following the guidance pretty much to the letter but I’ve been struck by a few things in recent days that have made me curious or even angry. We are not allowed out other than for essential things like exercise or shopping for the basics. But I walk the dog from my house to Dartford Heath and I see the car parks overflowing. Is it or is it not permitted to stick the dog in the boot and drive to the place of exercise? If it is I’m off to Joyden’sWood as I'm bored stiff with the Heath now. I’d also love to get some bedding plants and I’d really like to support our local garden centres who’ve been stuffed right at the prime time of the year. Some are doing “safe” click and collect schemes. But is this really an “essential” reason for me to get in the car and potentially risk taking resources away from the NHS if I have an accident en route? Same question with regard to B&Q as I’m short of some paint for the decorating I’m doing. I’m less sorry for them than I am for the garden centres but the principle is the same. Moral dilemma. Thoughts please?
Don't go to B&Q.
Stay at home, except for excercise, food or medicine. The message from the government is very clear.14 -
2 weeks in and people are still asking the same questions that are being drummed into us daily.
As for local garden centres, most are delivering to homes now.7 -
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I haven't left the house for two weeks now because I don't need to do any "essential" travel. The missus gets the food shopping in - as one of her apparently many "essential" trips out each day (a sore point) - and the whole thing is really starting to fuck me off now when you hear about people out sunbathing, driving to take their dog for a walk, etc.
We get the society we deserve and as I guess we have a society full of selfish pricks who wont even make small sacrifices to save other peoples lives, we've got what's coming to us. The utter bastards.16 -
Be bored or die...is it a tough choice ?8
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Do b and q do a delivery service?0
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Clear from the early responses that we are all of a similar mind. Who therefore are all these fcukers I am seeing in car parks and on their way to B&Q if we are typical? I don’t get the home delivery option either. Either the goods being delivered are essential or they are not, in which case they should surely not be being delivered?1
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Delivering plants is essential to keeping the businesses from going bust and are delivered by themselves unlike every single other retailer that are still running. 1 driver also makes more sense than families milling around looking at plants for hours potentially infecting others.Sillybilly said:Clear from the early responses that we are all of a similar mind. Who therefore are all these fcukers I am seeing in car parks and on their way to B&Q if we are typical? I don’t get the home delivery option either. Either the goods being delivered are essential or they are not, in which case they should surely not be being delivered?
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I’ve been doing a lot of work on my old MG over the last couple of weeks, which I finished over the weekend. Am itching to take it for a drive to test it out but don’t think “I’m just trying it out” will wash with the police if I get pulled over. As @Pedro45 says, it’s not a tough choice to wait until it’s safe to.2
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Until the guidelines are made less interpretive or we work out a consensus then there will be some people annoying others (on both sides of the argument) with their interpretation of essential.
Personally I just walk to the shops when needed and go for a daily exercise ride on my bike. If either or both are taken away I fear for my mental health.2 -
On Question Time, the week before last, Matt Hancock said it was okay to drive 5 minutes then go for a walk. This was a stupid thing to say as it gave many the green light to take their car out.1
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I suppose the counter argument to that which a friend put to me, is that his local park is completely rammed, whereas if he gets in his car within 10 minutes is empty countryside. Worse as it's an unnecessary journey, but better for social isolation purposeskentaddick said:
Don't drive your car to walk your dog, you're walking your dog round a park nearby, that's good enough.Sillybilly said:Hope no one minds me posting this outside the main Covid19 thread as I can’t bring myself to read that lot and this is a pretty specific question. As a vulnerable person and a good citizen I am following the guidance pretty much to the letter but I’ve been struck by a few things in recent days that have made me curious or even angry. We are not allowed out other than for essential things like exercise or shopping for the basics. But I walk the dog from my house to Dartford Heath and I see the car parks overflowing. Is it or is it not permitted to stick the dog in the boot and drive to the place of exercise? If it is I’m off to Joyden’sWood as I'm bored stiff with the Heath now. I’d also love to get some bedding plants and I’d really like to support our local garden centres who’ve been stuffed right at the prime time of the year. Some are doing “safe” click and collect schemes. But is this really an “essential” reason for me to get in the car and potentially risk taking resources away from the NHS if I have an accident en route? Same question with regard to B&Q as I’m short of some paint for the decorating I’m doing. I’m less sorry for them than I am for the garden centres but the principle is the same. Moral dilemma. Thoughts please?
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Think about it. You're fed up with doing the same walk everyday. So you consider going further afield to a place that you've been to before that is usually a bit of a hotspot for visitors in usual times.
Chances are plenty of other people have been thinking about the same place. Hence you get the scenes being witnessed at Regents park and the like.
If it's on your doorstep then fine. If not then stay away. Simple. Sorry if you're bored. Small sacrifices and all that.
A word to the absolute bells who I saw out yesterday who thought essential shopping was a bag of charcoal and a pack of pork kebabs as essential shopping.
If you're out for the weekly essential shop and happen to put them in the trolley then fine.
If you walked out of the shop with the aforementioned items and nothing else then have a fuc*ing word with yourself.8 -
As a vulnerable person I've been acting like a hermit and only venturing to the garden for the last fortnight. I have tried to maintain a sense of weekend normality by washing the car twice in that time even though it's not been anywhere.
However, this morning I did venture out and felt like a criminal. CatJnr has had his paramedic studies interrupted and returned home and has got a job at the local hospital to help and keep his hand in. Weeks ago we booked his car in for a service and MOT at a local (to here) garage as we were expecting him home for Uni Easter hols. I know he could defer MOT, but the garage was still open and as a key worker he would need reliable transport to get to the hospital. So I ventured out this morning to pick him up from the garage (<3 miles) and felt really irresponsible, even though I think it was justified. If it hadn't been raining, I was considering telling him to walk - would that have been worse?1 -
Just had a lovely walk with the dogs at John O'Groats. It is essential that I take the dogs out after all.1
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Its classed as a non essential journey driving your dogs to a place of exercise, walking your dogs to a specific place is deemed as your and the dogs exercise. ie: You cant go home drop the dog off then go for your exercise, I have friends that were originally warned about this a few weeks ago by the police that further infringement may incur a fine.
We are fortunate that less than a mile away I have the school fields to exercise ours in private, but even walking Saturday I asked by a policewoman that I wouldn't be out all day exercising them (all said with a smile) explaining where I was going I was told "keep safe"1 -
I can see where you get your name from.0
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Even though I have been completely on me j since the 14/03, with only one trip out to the blood test lab the other week, reading this type of thing in these times does make me feel very privileged that I'm currently hold up on just over 3 acres of isolated woodland, with just the 3 dogs as company. Makes me wonder why I’m so eager to get back into the thick of it, but I am
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You’re very lucky. I think what I’ve learnt from this is how much I want to go back to our place in Ireland. We have a reasonably isolated old farm house with plenty of land to use for exercise or just loafing around.i_b_b_o_r_g said:Even though I have been completely on me j since the 14/03, with only one trip out to the blood test lab the other week, reading this type of thing in these times does make me feel very privileged that I'm currently hold up on just over 3 acres of isolated woodland, with just the 3 dogs as company. Makes me wonder why I’m so eager to get back into the thick of it, but I am
I think once this is over if our finances stack up we might let our house out here and go back.1 -
Blimey, what have you been using instead of tissues then?i_b_b_o_r_g said:Even though I have been completely on me j since the 14/03, with only one trip out to the blood test lab the other week, reading this type of thing in these times does make me feel very privileged that I'm currently hold up on just over 3 acres of isolated woodland, with just the 3 dogs as company. Makes me wonder why I’m so eager to get back into the thick of it, but I am
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Hard being completely on me own though mate, my Mrs is still stuck in UK.iainment said:
You’re very lucky. I think what I’ve learnt from this is how much I want to go back to our place in Ireland. We have a reasonably isolated old farm house with plenty of land to use for exercise or just loafing around.i_b_b_o_r_g said:Even though I have been completely on me j since the 14/03, with only one trip out to the blood test lab the other week, reading this type of thing in these times does make me feel very privileged that I'm currently hold up on just over 3 acres of isolated woodland, with just the 3 dogs as company. Makes me wonder why I’m so eager to get back into the thick of it, but I am
I think once this is over if our finances stack up we might let our house out here and go back.
It comes to something though when you gotta be grateful for not living within a couple of miles of anyone because you'll probably cop it if you get this virus lol.
And I can't see these rules being relaxed anytime soon. I was saying to Dave 123 on Facebook messenger the other day, it ain't like they're gonna say after another 2 weeks, right that's it folks, you can all go back to normality now.. Reckon this is gonna last for a good few months yet0 -
As long as you didn’t start the walk at Lands End 😉thai malaysia addick said:Just had a lovely walk with the dogs at John O'Groats. It is essential that I take the dogs out after all.1 -
...sorry thought this was the main Corona thread, can't keep up0
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We’ve been on lock down in California for 3 weeks today and it seems to be working. In the mandatory directive here it said it was ok to use a mode of transport to drive to an exercise location. It has been working well here. From what I’m hearing on this thread it sounds like the directive in the UK is more stringent. Does your official directive specifically mention anything about driving to an exercise spot?0
