The Dales under lockdown

We must now stay at home to protect the NHS and save lives. We must now urgently follow the restrictions to limit the spread and save lives here in North Yorkshire.

Here is the latest government information:

When you can leave home

You must not leave or be outside of your home except where you have a ‘reasonable excuse’. A ‘reasonable excuse’ includes:

• Work - you can only leave home for work purposes where it is unreasonable for you to do your job from home.
• Volunteering - you can also leave home to provide voluntary or charitable services.
• Essential activities - you can leave home to buy things at shops or obtain services. You may also leave your home to do these things on behalf of a disabled or vulnerable person or someone self-isolating.
• Education and childcare - You can only leave home for education, registered childcare, and supervised activities for children where they are eligible to attend.
• Meeting others and care - You can leave home to visit people in your support bubble ( if you are legally permitted to form one), to provide informal childcare for children under 14 as part of a childcare bubble, or for respite care where that care is being provided to a vulnerable person or a person with a disability, or is a short break in respect of a looked-after child.
• Exercise - You can continue to exercise alone, with one other person or with your household or support bubble. This should be limited to once per day, and you should not travel outside your local area. You should maintain social distancing.
• Medical reasons - You can leave home for a medical reason, including to get a Covid-19 test, for medical appointments and emergencies.
• Harm and compassionate visits - you can leave home to be with someone who is giving birth, to avoid injury or illness or to escape risk of harm (such as domestic abuse). You can also leave home to visit someone who is dying or someone in a care home (if permitted under care home guidance), hospice, or hospital, or to accompany them to a medical appointment.
• Animal welfare reasons – you can leave home for animal welfare reasons, such as to attend veterinary services for advice or treatment.
• Communal worship and life events - You can leave home to attend or visit a place of worship for communal worship, a funeral or event related to a death, a burial ground or a remembrance garden, or to attend a wedding ceremony. You should follow the guidance on the safe use of places of worship and must not mingle with anyone outside of your household or support bubble when attending a place of worship. Weddings, funerals and religious, belief-based or commemorative events linked to someone’s death are all subject to limits on the numbers that can attend, and weddings and civil ceremonies may only take place in exceptional circumstances.

Exercising and meeting other people

You should minimise time spent outside your home.

It is against the law to meet socially with family or friends unless they are part of your household or support bubble. You can only leave your home to exercise, and not for the purpose of recreation or leisure (e.g. a picnic or a social meeting). This should be limited to once per day, and you should not travel outside your local area.

You can exercise in a public outdoor place:

• by yourself
• with the people you live with
• with your support bubble (if you are legally permitted to form one)
• in a childcare bubble where providing childcare
• or, when on your own, with 1 person from another household

Public outdoor places include:

• parks, beaches, countryside accessible to the public, forests
• public gardens (whether or not you pay to enter them)
• the grounds of a heritage site
• playgrounds

Outdoor sports venues, including tennis courts, golf courses and swimming pools, must close.

Find out more about exercising and meeting other people.

Going to work

You may only leave your home for work if you cannot reasonably work from home.

Where people cannot work from home they should continue to travel to their workplace.

Find out more about going to work.

Travel

If you need to travel you should stay local – meaning avoiding travelling outside of your village, town or the part of a city where you live – and look to reduce the number of journeys you make overall.

If you need to travel, walk or cycle where possible, and plan ahead and avoid busy times and routes on public transport. This will allow you to practice social distancing while you travel.

Avoid car sharing with anyone from outside your household or your support bubble.

If you need to use public transport, you should follow the safer travel guidance.

Staying away from home overnight

You cannot leave your home or the place where you are living for holidays or overnight stays unless you have a reasonable excuse for doing so. This means that holidays in the UK and abroad are not allowed.

Guest accommodation providers such as hotels, B&Bs and caravan parks may remain open for the specific reasons set out in law, including where guests are unable to return to their main residence.

Find out more about travel.

School, college and university

Colleges, primary (reception onwards) and secondary schools will remain open for vulnerable children and the children of critical workers. All other children will learn remotely until February half term.

University students who are undertaking training and study for courses listed on GOV.UK should return to face to face learning as planned and be tested twice, upon arrival or self-isolate for ten days. Students who do not study these courses should remain where they are wherever possible, and start their term online, until at least Mid-February.

Find out more about school, college and university.