Farmer blocks cycle trail in Cornwall ‘to stop coronavirus’

Shades wrote:

This could be a 'permissive path' (ie Sustrans (or other) have 'negotiated' permission for a path to cross the land)?  The landowner could be allowed to close it if he sees fit.  We have a mile stretch of bike path near us that closes for a number of Saturdays in the shooting season; dates are usually advertised on the gates at each end of the section of path (there is a quiet lane alternative route (nasty climb though)).  In the winter it occasionally gets a load of 'sticky' clay mud on it where the farmer has been ploughing a field; as it's 'permissive' there's nothing you can do about it as far as I know.

It could be, but is it?  Some reports say that it is a bridleway, and thus, there is right of way for pedestrians, horses and cyclists.  We need the designation of this path.

The bbc reported that the farmer believes it to be a bridleway.

yerbs wrote:

My partner and in-laws are seriously at risk from the virus.

Then your remedy is to stay indoors.

Prof John Edmunds, Professor in the Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said:

“There are 3 potential routes of transmission: via fomites (contact with an infected surface, such as a door handle); via aerosols (tiny particles that can stay suspended in the air); and droplets (larger particles that rapidly fall to the ground). The first two of these routes would be reduced to virtually zero out of doors, as you are much less likely to touch an infected surface, and suspended particles will be massively diluted by the fresh air and the viral particles that they contain rapidly destroyed by desiccation and UV light. This leaves droplets. As long as you keep a reasonable distance away from others, your risk will also be reduced to extremely low levels. Hence, banning people from exercising out of doors would have a negligible impact on the epidemiology of this disease but a marked impact on peoples’ mental health and wellbeing.”

yeah, for months if the idiots continue to go out and not do the sensible thing. 

other reseach says that it can last for 3 days on hard surfaces.

I'm not saying that the bridleways should be closed, I am saying I understand why the farmer is making a point here. 

Are the majority on here saying that it's fine for loads of people to use narrow paths, all touching gates every few seconds ? Where is the limit ? 

On my daily exercise loop I ride through a golf course, on a bridleway, that sometimes gets narrow, with cooperation, sometimes me stopping and moving to the side, sometimes the walkers, we maintain social distancing, occasionally a tiny bit less than 2 metres, but on the whole well.  The golf course has not blocked off this public right of way however, no it has opened up the entire golf course (apart from the greens) to walkers, joggers and dogists.  Not me, the cyclist, fair enough, I get to ride a slightly emptier bridleway.  Seems to me a better response than the farmers.

I am also seeing people out who might very rarely be out enjoying their local areas, it is  a very good thing.  Sometimes surly youths, in nature.

Which 'other research' ?

Do you think if we all stay indoors for a few weeks it will all be fine at the end of it?

All that is happening is that the rate of infection is reduced and this buys time for the NHS and scientists. We need a large proportion to get the virus and recover or be locked in for over a year till there is a vaccine.

Could we not take turns? A national lottery, where the lucky winner gets to go outside that day. The other 60+ million have to stay in and wait till the next day's lottery draw.

A cyclist in his 60s was killed in a collision with a van on this road, near Guidford, yesterday.  Dead at the scene, so I'm guessing quite a violent death.  There is a reason some of us would prefer to be on our nations bridleways and other public rights of way.

The speeding during lockdown has got progressively worse; I was enjoying the quiet roads but now I'm not that sure.

Horrible to read that. I don't know what is wrong with these retarded drivers.

I had my worse journey in a long time in Thursday and it was only a 5 mile trip. 3 close passes (one on a blind bend) and 2 or 3 drivers approaching junctions at speed to then slam the brakes on. One of whom seemed more interested in the passenger's mobile than actually using the roads properly.

It's no wonder people want to use more off road routes, especially with soem of hte speeding I have seen at other times.

"The farmer is probably also terrifies that he HAS to touch the gates"
Heads up, it is not transmitted through the skin, you can't catch it by touching something.

No, but it can be transmitted after touching a surface and then touching your eyes, nose or mouth.

Stay indoors then.  Simple.  

missing the point. hundreds of thousand of people have tested positive in this country, it can take weeks for the symptons to appear. Odds are that a large number of people have the virus already (and some cyclist). close proximity spreads it. 

Close proximity extended over a period of time. Like 15 minutes stood close to someone, especially whilst indoors. Outdoors, that is already less risky than indoors, and a fleeting passage - the risk is vanishing.

As of today 70 odd thousand mate.  Not hundreds of thousands.

I think I read that testing is only coming up at about 20% positive, meaning that there are a lot of people who "know" they have it and don't.  We are still in the middle of cold and 'flu season, similar symptoms to mild sars cov 2.

Missing what point? There is no point to be missed. The farmer is a selfish idiot, using an excuse that makes no sense to do what he obviously wanted to do for his own selfish reasons.

Personally I think they should be closing many roads to motorised vehicles. When I go out it's a complete pain to try and keep 6 feet away from others because the pavements are barely 6 feet wide (and too many people make no effort to co-operate, including the occasional pavement cyclist).

Using farmer-logic one would therefore block the pavements, but in fact if they closed a lot of roads to motorised vehicles people could walk in them and hence find it easier to maintain distances. We don't need so much car-space now, as there's so much less traffic, but unfortunately the drivers still out there just use that as a pretext to drive like a complete James Hunt.

Legin wrote:

And this nicely sums up vigilante Britain; or is it just some land owner who resents anyone using his land even in normal times?

Does rather put one in mind of Farmer Giles from Viz "Get orff my land."

Sriracha wrote:

Bales of hay? Got a match?

I don't imagine the van is fireproof either.

But that would probably burn down that nice gate too.

Then again, wouldn't that reduce the contamination issue the mad farmer has?

BBC has it the farmer thinking it might be a bridleway, so public right of way, would be different if it were a permissable path, there was one on the Blackwater Valley route that the landowner closed.