Relaxing in parks if no garden

We must all maintain social distancing. Outdoors let's always stay 2m apart and much further apart than that wherever possible.

Parks are not just for exercising. They are for relaxing, contemplating, playing as a family, playing with dogs, and taking in the world. Exercising can be done at home just as much as relaxing can be done at home. Before lockdown few people would have said the main purpose of parks was jogging.

I doubt that there would be many infections as a result of letting people sit on grass alone or with their household many meters from a path or others. Perhaps eating a sandwich. Hardly dangerous activities. This is something people with gardens are doing daily right now yet many are stuck indoors as they've no garden.

Let those with no garden (often the less wealthy) relax in parks for as long as they wish where it is safe to do so without fear of abuse from passersby. But let's really clamp down on those gathering in groups or flouting the distancing rules.

Why the contribution is important

Mental health and fairness for those without gardens to be outdoors. Humans don't just need exercise outdoors. It will also help vitamin d levels.

by Johnh on May 08, 2020 at 10:57AM

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Average rating: 4.8
Based on: 27 votes

Comments

  • Posted by FraochL May 08, 2020 at 11:47

    Agree there’s a huge disparity in opportunity for those without gardens that impacts their mental health. The first thing is getting them the same amenities as those of us with a garden provided they maintain social distancing. The only difficulty is persistence of virus on benches etc so they’d need to be avoided or wiped down before use.

  • Posted by KCTM May 08, 2020 at 12:50

    Relaxing in parks should be allowed when the park is not too busy.

    If the park is busy, only exercising should be allowed.

    This could be easily enforced by parks setting up time of day restrictions based ion normal usage/ weather, etc.

  • Posted by JanetMoxley May 08, 2020 at 20:57

    As long as distancing is maintained sitting in outdoor spaces does no harm, and is likely to do good.
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