New covid restrictions

[magicdin]

I live in Dumbarton (Greater Glasgow & Clyde HB) and am, as crow flies, 250 metres from boundary with Argyll & Bute (Highland Health Board).The hills I have going to recently ie Arrochar,Loch Lomond are in A &B

[Dave Hewitt]

I live in Dumbarton (Greater Glasgow & Clyde HB) and am, as crow flies, 250 metres from boundary with Argyll & Bute (Highland Health Board).The hills I have going to recently ie Arrochar,Loch Lomond are in A &B

I hadn't realised NHS Highland came down so close to Glasgow - that's pretty limiting in terms of access to biggish hills.

Here's a map showing all the NHS regions:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/annual-state-nhsscotland-assets-facilities-report-2016/pages/5/

[Paul Webster]

The only statement on travel from the speech is this (for the 16 days of restrictions):

We are not imposing mandatory travel restrictions at this stage, and specifically, we are not insisting that people cancel any half term breaks they have planned.

However, in general, we are advising people living in Greater Glasgow & Clyde, Lanarkshire, Ayrshire & Arran, Lothian and Forth Valley not to travel outside the health board area they live in, if you don’t need to - and likewise people in other parts of Scotland should not travel to these areas if they don’t need to.

There are no domestic travel restrictions mentioned on the guidance on the Scot Gov website. There is no more general rule about not travelling between health boards beyond the advice quoted above.

[WallaceJohnston]

No word or any statements from MRT or Mountaineering Scotland or any others either, following these new announcements as far as I can see.

Probably the only issue there is if someone gets rescued from a hill in the wrong health board area then there might be a certain amount of Twitter/Facebook shaming. It's not (yet) illegal, so they presumably wouldn't get charged as per those Crianlarich punters back in the spring.

It wasn't actually illegal in the spring either, which is why there was so much fuss made about it!

[Dave Hewitt]

It wasn't actually illegal in the spring either, which is why there was so much fuss made about it!

Right enough - although the no-travel "advice" at that stage seemed to be more stringent than the new stuff due to come in tomorrow evening.

[magicdin]

I live in Dumbarton (Greater Glasgow & Clyde HB) and am, as crow flies, 250 metres from boundary with Argyll & Bute (Highland Health Board).The hills I have going to recently ie Arrochar,Loch Lomond are in A &B

I hadn't realised NHS Highland came down so close to Glasgow - that's pretty limiting in terms of access to biggish hills.

Here's a map showing all the NHS regions:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/annual-state-nhsscotland-assets-facilities-report-2016/pages/5/

Yep 250 metres frae ma hoose aw ra way tae Cape Wrath/Dunnet Head

[StevieC]

I live in Dumbarton (Greater Glasgow & Clyde HB) and am, as crow flies, 250 metres from boundary with Argyll & Bute (Highland Health Board).The hills I have going to recently ie Arrochar,Loch Lomond are in A &B

I hadn't realised NHS Highland came down so close to Glasgow - that's pretty limiting in terms of access to biggish hills.

Here's a map showing all the NHS regions:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/annual-state-nhsscotland-assets-facilities-report-2016/pages/5/

Yep 250 metres frae ma hoose aw ra way tae Cape Wrath/Dunnet Head

It's complicated because there used to be an Argyll & Clyde Health Board that covered what is roughly the current Argyll & Bute council area, i.e. up to Oban(ish), down to Kintyre and all of the Inner Hebrides, plus Inverclyde (Greenock area). This was dissolved about 15 years ago and split between NHS Greater Glasgow (which took over Inverclyde) and NHS Highland (which took the rest).

Of course, how the virus knows all this is anyone's guess

[Marty_JG]

Here's a quote from today's newspaper;

On BBC’s Good Morning Scotland show, the presenter said there was confusion about advice to people who live in the Central Belt in relation to travelling and their holidays. Asked if they can still go on holiday, [Deputy First Minister John] Swinney replied:

“Yes, but we ask people to take the greatest of care. That’s the principle piece of advice. Holiday plans can take their course but people must exercise great care, and of course where they are going to areas of the country which may have, for example, a lesser prevalence of coronavirus, to be respectful of the fact that we don’t want to be any way responsible for the spread of the virus in other communities.”

And that seems a sensible way of tackling domestic travel for holidays be it beach, bike or hike. Take great care, be aware, be respectful. Yes you can legally travel but for cripe's sake be careful.

[Sgurr]

So someone from Glasow who has a caravan in a caravan park in Fife can still go as long as they expected to go at half term, but they can't let their neighbour go unless they came to a prior arrangement? Who knows or can police these prior understandings?

[gman]

The new guidelines and the evidence paper on which they're based are worried about people mixing indoors with different households, as the evidence shows this is responsible for the rise in infections.

Ministers want to keep the education sector and most workplaces open so "decision-takers have to take into
account the increase in transmission that arises from these settings and priorities" and "this poses hard choices about keeping other sectors open".

Outdoor activities like hillwalking aren't mentioned and travel limits are not in the guidelines or evidence paper.

https://www.gov.scot/news/new-moves-to-stop-covid-19-spread/

https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-evidence-paper-october-2020/

[Dave Hewitt]

Outdoor activities like hillwalking aren't mentioned and travel limits are not in the guidelines or evidence paper.

Travel is mentioned now - an "additional measures" document was published yesterday:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-additional-measures-october-2020/

The relevant bit re travel says:

we want people to be safe. We are not advising that people who have already booked holiday accommodation in October need to cancel. More generally, please think about whether you need to travel, especially if you live in or would be travelling to, or through, the central belt. The Scottish Government is asking people within the central belt areas (see end note for definition) to think carefully about whether they need to travel outside their local health board area and, where that is necessary, to plan to do so safely

[gman]

Travel is mentioned now - an "additional measures" document was published yesterday:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-additional-measures-october-2020/

Thanks, I hadn't seen that - definitely reads like a hastily added paragraph!

[Sunset tripper]

It wasn't actually illegal in the spring either, which is why there was so much fuss made about it!

Right enough - although the no-travel "advice" at that stage seemed to be more stringent than the new stuff due to come in tomorrow evening.

The new travel advice re NHS areas means folk from Glasgow are being advised not to climb Ben Lomond.

It's a strange one this - no message from the National Parks regarding the new advice but during the lockdown easing when hill walking was hampered by the 5 mile guidance the NPs were apoplectic at the thought of folk hitting the hills.

Strange because the situation and covid cases at that stage were probably a lot better than it looks now.

[Sunset tripper]

Slightly off topic

I've been looking at the old County maps and checking out the possibilities if everyone was not allowed outside their home county.
I think Inverness-shire would be the best with Ben Nevis, the mamores and Skye all on the menu.
Fighting it out for 2nd and 3rd I would go for Argyll and Ross-shire but Sutherland pretty good too.

Living in Inverness Ben MacDui would be off limits for me but Cairngorm would be fine. MacDui would be fine from the normal route from Linn o dee if you're from Aberdeen shire. MacDui also ok if you are from Banffshire, but your easiest approach would be from Tomintoul by the looks of it and you wouldn't be allowed to walk round the trig

Ps. Imagine how quiet all these hills would be if it was only folk from the county that was allowed on them.

[Dave Hewitt]

The new travel advice re NHS areas means folk from Glasgow are being advised not to climb Ben Lomond.

Yep - that's in NHS Forth Valley which is undoubtedly the best of the five affected areas from a hillgoing base camp perspective.

Re the counties thing, Stirling is pretty good too (hence NHS Forth Valley being good). One could also pick and choose older versions of counties - eg I believe Perthshire at some stage came right down to the edge of Stirling (as far as Causewayhead roundabout, so I've been told). Thirty-odd years ago I read parts of the Old Statistical Account of Scotland, and one thing I remember from that was the county with the highest average height being cited as Peeblesshire.