Lockdown-Observations Sunday 12th April 2020

We are well into lockdown, as a team we are either working from home, on an emergency rota ensuring the  Country Parks that have open access are safe, clean and secure or redeployed within the authority.

It seems that the vast majority of people are heeding the advice and instructions to stay at home except for the permitted activities, I have been taking my daily exercise hour walking around one of our green spaces, Sandy Water Park, as it is only 300m from my front door, I can honestly say that I am seeing fewer and fewer people out and about which is a good sign, I vary the time of day I go out and again can say I've not seen any obvious infringements of the social distancing advice. (well one which was being dealt with by the Police)

The Gorsedd Stones, 

looking over the lake at Sandy Water Park

It seem the majority of people appreciate the ability to be able to enjoy some wonderful countryside and amazing views on their door step, which brings me to some observations and three questions

Looking towards Burry Port, 

with the sand dredger just leaving anchorage on a flood tide

There is a significant increase in the amount of dog faeces on the edge of the path around the lake, I find this very concerning as the majority of dog walkers must be very local, with the car park out of bounds. There are more than enough bins to use and they are being emptied on a regular basis, so why? (no photo you all know what it looks like)

There is also an increasing amount of garden waste being "fly tipped", (because that's what it is- fly tipping), on the edge of the lake, again why? when it can be bagged up to take to the local recycling centre, less than 3  miles away when it opens again.

There's the odd bit of vandalism, broken signs etc but perhaps worse of all is can someone tell me where the bench, that has lived at the western end of the lake for years, has gone to, is it self-isolating?

It was there a few days ago!

I am aware that across the UK countryside services are seeing similar issues including wildfires, wildlife crime, vandalism and theft. Asking the emergency services to respond to these criminal activities means them taking their focus off the pandemic crisis, which just shows how the tiniest minority of the public are prepared to use the current crisis to their own selfish advantage.

Keep Safe.......