Closure of car park at Butts Brow serves no real purpose

Government regulations allow for exercise and dog walking once per day and encourage the use of ‘local’ open spaces.

I regularly walk my dog at Butts Brow but access has now been closed off.

During last week’s warm weather there was a noticeable small increase in the number of people using the area but I did not observe a single person breaking the two metre distancing rule.

In fact on the infrequent occasions when people passed they were 20 to 30 metres apart.

Would you not agree that it is illogical to deny access to the wide open spaces of Sussex Downs and force people to exercise and walk in confined urban areas where contacts are more frequent and generally at a much closer distance?

The word ‘local’ is not clearly defined but I would interpret this as meaning people should not make a special journey from one town to another for the purpose of exercise.

Those within a few miles radius of Butts Brow could be considered as ‘local’.

I believe this is the case for the majority who use the facility.

In my case an additional consideration is that non-motorised access to Butts Brow is considerably strenuous and out of the question on a daily basis.

There have been comments in the national media of police forces acting as if we are a Police State and going beyond what is reasonable.

I hope that this is not the case in this instance but I do hope that some common sense will emerge and that we will soon be allowed access to the open spaces of the South Downs which is government policy.

Closure of Butts Brow access serves no useful purpose in our fight against coronavirus and may even be counter productive by encouraging more people onto residential streets.