Are you planning to visit your holiday home?

LinkyPinky - do you really think people in the rest of the country feel any better re infrastructure than you do? It's all dreadful wherever we are. Hope all stays well where you are.

Emmets; when I lived in Cornwall it was always the first/second generation Cornwall dwellers that used to moan about the emmets, not the ones whose families had lived there for generations. Not sure if things have changed now, though. Long time since I've been back.

Travelling for a day means you will be needing a toilet, surely? They are all locked up where i am

Petrol?

You create more traffic which is a bad thing even if it is now legal. More RTA's will not help anyone. what about a breakdown?
Am so angry Govt opened travelling. Another spike expected then in 3 weeks........we have only just cleared Covid out of our village we don t want second homers or day trippers and the toilets are all locked.

I think Van Tam made a valid point yesterday when asked why French people were being allowed to go to their holiday homes or rented gîtes and we weren't. He explained France has a slightly smaller population than the UK and nearly 3 times the surface area, so French people can spread out more and tuck themselves away in rural houses or along expansive coastlines. As a previous poster here said the quaint little seaside resorts in Britain are packed in summer, for example Salcombe has 1750 residents and this swells to 25,000 in summer, 60% of properties being second homes. Any infection would take hold immediately like it did in London and the local infrastructure simply could not cope. So geography plays a huge part too. One of the advantages of living in a sparsely populated country like New Zealand.

We had a run down to the south coast yesterday just over an hour’s drive.We took a picnic, had a lovely long walk along the seafront, then sat in the sun eating lunch, but yes the toilets were closed!

Luckily we had used the ones in the petrol station on the way down and called into the motorway services on the way back.

We were told the council toilets are reopening this Saturday.

There were other people there enjoying the sunshine but there was plenty of room to keep to the prescribed distance, and the rather stiff breeze helped of course !

My home is in North Wales, and have owned the bungalow for over 40 years now. I was visiting my daughter and family, in Lancashire when the Lockdown blew up. I am over 75 and feel very frustrated that I cannot go to my own home, much as I love staying with my daughter and family. When I go home, and I have been here 10 weeks now, I will take my youngest grandchild with me. The Welsh Police are really on the ball, and would probably stop me at the border. I cannot deal with any unpleasantness so am hoping everything is ok there...and I know one of my neighbours is keeping an eye on the property from the outside, but who knows what the inside will be like. For a start all my many plants will be dead.!! A difficult time, but we have to put up with it.

Thoughtful that is really difficult. I would have thought you were an exceptional case; could you contact someone for advice?

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What a worry for you Thoughtful

I would like to think you would be ok going home as it’s your main home.

Hopefully if you were stopped by the police, they would use their discretion especially if you explained how worried you were about your home.

It would take a very officious one to make you turn back, but who knows.

They do vary as we saw early on in the lockdown when drones were used to spot hapless dog walkers on deserted peaks.

Thankfully that over zealous reaction was nipped in the bud.

That's a shame Thoughtful I don't know what the situation is like in England or Wales as we are definitely in lockdown here in Scotland but surely your driving, in your bubble, to your own home is permissible.
Although there are rules, I hardly think we are not allowed to use our discretion. Nanny state and all that.

Why not contact the police or local council and ask for a letter? My delivery girl has two letters now in case she is stopped on route. She helps many of us oldies in the county.

Wish I had a holiday home - in Spain

I wish Scotland would just pack-up and toddle off into the North Sea...*some*where...*any*where. Sick of reading the hate emanating from some posts on the other side.

What brought that on Gabreiella ? The only hate filled post I see on this thread is yours.

Granny23 the poster in question must be very sad and lonely. We shall pray for her
Luckily I didn't see the evil posts or I might have had apoplexy

I have a small holiday home in Spain, Elizabeth - alas we’re not allowed in the country so much good it is!

Thoughtful your only home is in North Wales and you have
lived there over 40 years ?

Telephone your local police station in North Wales and your GP, you must be registered there, telephone your neighbours and your friends .

Again, if this your only home, good luck.

I was somewhat taken aback too Granny23 (by GG’s post about Scotland!)
Hers was the only invective I could see.
Where on earth did this observation come from and In any case, what arrogance - Is this typical of what we used to refer to as the “White Highlands” when we lived in South London!

The Welsh Police are really on the ball, and would probably stop me at the border
Thoughtful Here's a thought!
When we lived in England, some years ago, Wales was renowned for shutting down on Sundays., even the pubs, I think, although not the chapels!.
What's to stop you crossing the border under the cover of a Saturday night's darkness? If it's raining, as it sometimes does in Wales, there won't be any police out at that time.
Good Health and Good Luck
OoRoo

As Grammmaretto says, Thoughtful, get a letter or a print out of an email giving you authorisation to travel back to your own home.

People are allowed to travel back and forth to Wales for work, the borders aren't barricaded but you could be stopped, so you would probably need some kind of authorisation.

Plenty of second home owners arrived in our village. Plus day trippers and people clearly on holiday.
The opinion here is that these people have no consideration or respect for us who live here. We have our elderly and vulnerable who are now scared again to go back out into the village.
Why can't people with second homes do the right thing?
I think it is a very entitled selfish attitude. Stay home for now please.

Mine was in Naxos, Cyclades, Greece. So no choice but we sold it, thank goodness, but hey miss Naxos so badly. Greece have done so well with Covid

We went to our second home on Friday just to check up on the place and pick up some wood and the saw my husband needed which were in the garage to do some jobs here at home. He did try to go a fortnight ago for them but got called by the hospital to go in for a scan so had to turn back.

It's only an hour away, we didn't do anything other than tidy the garden and eat the packed lunch I'd taken and were home 5 hours later. The last time I stayed there was before my husband's op at the end of Feb. We would love to go and stay for a few days but realise it's against the rules.

I’ve noticed that a few gransnetters are using motorway service station toilets.
How are they being managed? The toilets I mean!

The one we used on the M3 on Thursday was fine PamelaJ1.

It was clean and there was only one other woman in there when I popped in late afternoon on our way home from a trip down to the south coast.

Apart from the loos only the WH Smith outlet was open in the services so it was very quiet.

Hopefully council toilets in seaside towns will be starting to open as we were advised would happen.

We try to be self sufficient on days out with our picnic and flasks of tea and coffee, but the loo situation is an unknown quantity isn’t it?!!

Although I can understand your feelings pinkquartz it’s not the whole story is it?

I am sure a lot of business owners in holiday areas are keeping everything crossed that second home owners and holidaymakers in general DO turn up in large numbers this summer.

The alternative could be the loss of their business whether it be a hotel, restaurant or any other business which relies on tourist for its survival.

JenniferEccles I 'm sure once covid is under control we will all be happy to see visitors return,but we're not happy at people from areas where it is still rising bringing it to us .We're "fighting our own battle with it" in the langauge you all seem to use.The issue of course is many will be carrying it and not know so imagine how many could be infected because of a selfish desire to do what YOU want and to hell with the rest of us.
I think the issue is that England being more highly populated that even though you have the highest number of deaths in Europe many wont actually know someone who has died.I live in a tourist area that doesn't have a huge population and everyone knows everyone else or is related to them .The deaths affect us all .Personally .I have lost family and friends and aquaintances that I would pass the time of day with in the town .Quite frankly the very last thing we want for the forseeable future is an influx of visitors.
For our friend GG54 .....I DONT HATE THE ENGLISH ...OR ENGLAND .I dont know how many times I have to spell it out! I HATE Westmonster and the system that means the people of my country are treated as second class citizens having to go cap in hand for our OWN revenue ,receiving a portion of it back under the guise of Barnet and being given debts accrued by your government that were spent on things we neither want nor need .We would be far better off on our own .Westminster cant/wont allow it by fair means or foul ...because they cant afford to lose the vast amount of money they skim for us and have done for centuries ...while the people of Scotland go without.You must know history ? Famously they did the same to India ...45TRILLION they stols while saying India was in DEFICIT every year Please learn some fact before coming out with the too wee too poor too stupid nonsense we hear daily from those down south ..and the unionists who believe every thing WM says .