This story, which appeared in the Guardian last Saturday, appears to have been placed by Police Scotland. It was headed by the quote – cut off in extract above – on the left. The article fails to answer the obvious question, why are the police saying “This is not the time to visit our areas of outstanding beauty”? It also appears to have been designed to mislead; and fails to consider the very real challenges faced by people locked down in urban areas
An interesting aspect of our governments management of the Covid-19 crisis has been the different responses of the Police in England and the Police in Scotland to laws which, until last week when in England the law was changed to allow people to leave their houses for their mental well-being, were almost identical (see here) . In England most of the police interpreted the law as allowing people to travel a reasonable distance for exercise, in Scotland generally they haven’t. Indeed in some areas the Police appear to have been actively involved in closing down car parks to stop people travelling (see here for case at Helensburgh seafront) and even closing what are public roads.
The legal basis for the closure of public car parks and public roads is not clear. If placed by the Police, the Guardian story provides another illustration of the harsher enforcement of the lockdown in the countryside in Scotland.
Lies, damned lies and statistics
The article is a demonstration of how statistics are being manipulated to create fear and concern. 11% of the 21,487 alleged “breaches” of the lockdown sounds more impressive than 2,363.57 (clearly a false figure) and a lot more than c78. That is average number of alleged breaches each day in the West Dunbartonshire Police District which includes Balloch, the busiest visitor hotspot in the National Park. 2,363 is not a lot compared to the 4 million people who visit the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park each year and c78 not many compared to the thousands who normally visit Balloch on a sunny day.
The Guardian article refers to 21,487 “breaches” of the lockdown since 6th April without explaining what these are. The term “breaches” is in my view misleading. The Police Statistics (see here) are broken down into: “dispersed when informed”; “dispersed but only when instructed”; “dispersed using reasonable force”; *Issued an FPN” (Fixed Penalty Notice) and “Arrested”. They give no indication of why people were “dispersed”, fined or arrested, where the incident took place, whether if it was outdoors (and not a house party), whether the people counted came under their own steam or by car, or how far they had come. You cannot tell from the statistics how many of the “thousands of people” (actually c2,363 at the time) alleged to have breached the lockdown by visiting Loch Lomond were local people sitting on a park bench in the sun (now a criminal offence).
Challenged by the Police, few people dare contest the fact that their fundamental human rights are being breached because they are being prevented from going outside and, possibly talking to others, for their own mental well-being. They move on, rather than risking a fine or arrest. Hence why the Police record “dispersed when informed”. “Dispersed when instructed” appears to record the people who try to stand up for their rights but who then do what they are told, rather than be fined. I have extracted the statistics for the West Dunbartonshire, LA sub-division, up to 13th May (see here) and they show:
- dispersed when informed 2626
- dispersed but only when instructed 387
- dispersed using reasonable force 17
- Issued an FPN 177
- Arrested 4
How many of these people were actually risking spread of the virus by not keeping apart? We don’t know but I suspect very few.
Enforcement targeted at closing down the countryside
What’s happening at South Loch Lomond raises the issue about how the Covid19 Restrictions Regulations are being enforced. Running back through Maxwell Park on Glasgow Southside yesterday, I did a quick count. There were over 40 individuals or small groups of people sitting on the grass or benches in the sun. All committing criminal offences, but not a police officer in sight. If the police had been present and challenging people they would have been just as overstretched as the article claimed they are in Balloch. It appears the Police in Glasgow have taken a different approach.
What appears to be happening is police effort is being focused on stopping people getting out from the towns into the countryside where there is more space. I have had reports of ever tighter road blocks around the City of Edinburgh so that it’s now almost impossible to park anywhere near the Pentlands. Hence too why the West Dunbartonshire breach figures are a high proportion of Scotland’s total.
Our Public Authorities – and unfortunately our politicians – seem paranoid about the possibility of people “flocking” to beauty spots. As one of the most accessible beauty spots for the 1.5 million people who live in the Clyde conurbation, Loch Lomond appears to have been singled out for attention and that in part explains West Dunbartonshire accounts for 11% of all Police Enforcement Action.
Is there really any problem?
In England last weekend the predicted surge in visitors to “beauty spots”, after the lockdown rules were relaxed to allow people to get outdoors more easily, never materialised. A photo was released and published in several newspapers (see here) claiming crowds at Dovedale, a beauty spot in the Peak District. It shows small groups of people collecting at the famous stepping stones across the river. The numbers are far far lower and less crowded together than the people queuing at my local Morrisons two days ago. If you discount the propaganda, it should be quite obvious that if people can get out of their cars safely in their local supermarkets and then queue apart to get in, they can manage any car park or path network in the countryside. Its much easier to negotiate your way round people on a footpath than it is on a supermarket aisle.
So, what about the claim in the article from John Gray of Lomond Stores that Balloch has been busier the last few weeks than it normally is on a summer’s day? And what about Janet Moore reporting queues outside her shop and the abuse she has received because of this? Well, apart from this being good for the local economy, as long as people observe the physical distance rules, there is an explanation which the Guardian article failed to consider. The west of Glasgow is the worst area in the city for access to greenspace and neighbouring open space, such as Mugdock Country Park, has been effectively closed down to cars (see here) . As a consequence, thousands of people have been forced onto the Forth Clyde Canal walkways and the cycle path out to Loch Lomond. Some get there. Others, seeking less crowded paths, drive as it’s one of the few places close to Glasgow where it’s still possible to park since, while our Public Authorities can close private car parks they cannot shut down on-street parking. After arrival, some of these people pop into the local shop to get refreshments. So what, as long as the queues are orderly and people keep their distance?
Outdoor recreation – the missed opportunity
If the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority was worthy of its name it would have been re-assuring local people that visitors pose no risk as long as they stay apart, defending local shop keepers like Janet Moore from hate crime and deploying its Ranger service to enable people to enjoy the lochshores safely instead of turning this into a police matter. Rather than do this, which might involve some work, the LLTNPA is still putting out the message that Loch Lomond is off-limits (see here). That has never been the case since the beginning of lockdown. The Restriction Regulations have always allowed people to take unlimited physical exercise and now the Scottish Government’s Guidance says that too. Yet the Park’s Chief Executive, Gordon Watson, is effectively claiming that people shouldn’t even be cycling out to Loch Lomond. Hasn’t he heard of people going out for the day for exercise?
The failure of leadership here if fundamental and stems right back to the camping byelaws. Gordon Watson claims getting out can wait, as Loch Lomond will still be there. Meanwhile an epidemic of ill-health, both mental and physical, is sweeping Scotland as a direct consequence of the lockdown (see here). What should have been the greatest opportunity Scotland has ever had to improve people’s physical and mental health, by getting people outside when they couldn’t go to work, has been turned into another health disaster. It will long outlast the Covid-19 crisis. The people our public authorities should be worrying about are not the 20% of the population who are trying to get out to the countryside – and can do so quite safely by staying apart – but the 80% who aren’t.
Unfortunately, judging by Nicola Sturgeon’s speech earlier in the week (see here), I don’t expect the Scottish Government’s unnecessary restrictions on outdoor recreation to change significantly before the end of May.
Remember it is local in phase 1
Plenty already ignoring by looks of things. Compromise others and possibly themselves. Muppets
So what was the situation in the Pacific Rim? Never did get an answer.
Keep safe.
The video in the original piece about South Korea answered the question South Korea don’t even need to do physical distancing because they track down the virus isolate the people involved and stop it. Going out into the countryside for a walk is not going to compromise anyone so long as people stay apart, even without contact tracing. People that want to do that are not muppets, its our government that ignores the science from SAGE that is that any risks associated with outdoor recreation recreation are very low but despite this is still trying to stop people travel any distance at all.
Who are you going to compromise out of doors? Nobody.
Correct. I am not going to compromise anyone.
Yourself, who are you going to compromise?
100% correct. Outdoors is by far the best way of not getting Covid. Even better take in a few mountains as even the humble MIDGE can’t infect you and there billions if them
It’s completely insane. It’s almost unheard-of for someone to catch this virus out in the open air. You’d practically have to have someone cough in your face. If they *encouraged* outdoor activity and simply issued strong advice not to touch anyone and not to stand talking closer than 2 metres, there would be no virus transfer to speak of and everybody would be a lot happier.
The trouble is, this fixation on outdoor activities is taking attention away from the really dangerous behaviour which is house parties. Id people could meet outside, even have a barbecue, they might be less inclined to meet where they can’t be seen and where it’s genuinely dangerous.
Nicola Sturgeon has never climbed anything more than a flight of stairs. She has no understanding of outdoor recreation.
Unfortunately those MPSs that do enjoy hillwalking, canoeing,fishing and the rest have been silenced by the, “Save the NHS” xxxxxxxx.
I did a 70 mile cycle on Saturday, and 56 on Sunday. Harm caused to anybody. ZERO! I saw maybe 80 people on Portobello beach. Sunday afternoon. Spread out over 2 miles of sand and in no way crowded.
Every road and parking space round the Pentlands has been blocked off. I’ve seen a police van cruising round in the evening on several occasions recently. Obviously looking for victims to harass given that I’ve never seen the police in 15 years of using those same roads.
And if they encouraged lycra clad cyclists not to speed past you and towards you panting and blowing, without leaving 2 metres of space that might help too.
One of the problems exposed by the Covid 19 crisis is the inadequacy of the path/cycle network in Scotland. If there were more cycle paths alongside roads there would be no need for the cyclists who are racing/pushing themselves to be sharing the same paths as pedestrians. It would be good if the Covid 19 crisis focussed public authorities attention on the underlying issues. Meantime of course people should try to keep apart though as Prof Jason Leitch said this morning the real risk of transmission between people comes after you have been in their presence for over 15 minutes
The unelected body known as the “Police College” which appears to be able to decide what laws produced by the democratic process mean in practice, should not exist.
If there is a problem of interpretation it should be for the legislators to clarify. It is fundamental that the police exist to enforce the law, not to make it, but that seems to have been lost somewhere along the way.
Luckily everyone knows the guardian is garbage Government trash
Same in Wales – paranoia from the authorities about people visiting the outdoors combined with fear and a shameful lack of generosity from some in the rural communities. I’m disappointed too with the governing bodies and outdoor associations which have fallen too far and too quickly into line with the sloganising.
So what can we do to turn this tide? That’s the question I keep returning to. I’ve written to MPs and the press, I challenge the bigoted voices on Twitter and have made a point locally (I live in a national park rural community) of demonstrably taking a different view to that of the fearful withdrawers. My tyres spiked as a result!!!
But it seems to me we need something more structured; something to give reassurance and to help the politicians and fearful locals understand that by allowing and encouraging people into the countryside we are not creating problems but helping to solve them.
I’d like to see a scale chart which shows the relative risk of different activities – perhaps using three criteria of
– nature of the activity and ease of social distancing
– where it takes place: inside or outside, crowded location or not
– the number of people involved and how dispersed they are
So an activity like surfing or country walking would score low on all three criteria; shopping in the open-air location might be medium, while ‘snogging random strangers on the subway’ would score high on all counts!!
But joking aside this could actually be useful in demonstrating which activities that are safer than others – rugby, for example, might score mid-to-high range and tennis much lower. It need not be limited to sports – we might compare eating in a restaurant to spectating at a football match, or visiting the theatre. What we have to show – in a simple form – is that people going walking or sunbathing are at much less of a risk than most of the alternatives.
Other regions of the UK still enjoy regional Police Command. Not so in Scotland where “CONTROL” is a worryingaspect of the present Political mindset. Scots for the past decade have watched the costly shambles as regional commands were run down, buildings abandoned then dismantled so a centralised Training ,operational and Command HQ could be justified into place. Now few rural regions have senior officers ‘born and bred’ within any rural part. Lacking this essential tenet of good Policing, the HQ lacks first hand local knowledge. The deployment of adequate resources to where they might be required now involves huge logistics and travel times. During this present civil emergency we reap some of the consequences. Too little advice from the regions is now being listened to by senior commanders. A ‘One-size-fits-all’ city/urban approach does not work everywhere. Lacking knowledgeable regional commanders who are living on the spot, Police cannot operate efficiently in response to the wide variety of differing risks faced within distant small communities from this virus. Furthermore the valuable and well trained Police officers “tasked” to patrol occasionally would never recognise or relate to life experiences of those actually resident,unless their in- car ANPR systems did not provide a basic hint ! Today we see this article on BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-52754442 Can it really be true that the hills and open spaces of Scotland are now officially to be confirmed as a leisure time “theme park” where the the authorities hold the “keys to access” and have a duty of care ? Might the public now be correct to exercise ” human rights legislation” to demand 24/7 attention and rescue services.? There once was afarmore simple message that could be issued. Grandparents would know this. ” If you go up there at this time you are on your own. ( as your forebears one were ) We will not come out for you.” With authorities busy saving hundreds and thousands from an unseen peril This – use your self knowledge and go at your own risk -attitude seems fair enough ?