A NUMBER of rural organisations have joined forces to call for a review of the lockdown travel guidelines.

The National Rural Crime Network, NFU, Countryside Alliance and CLA have written to the Justice Secretary to request a review of the lockdown enforcement measures following guidance issued by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and College of Policing.

The letter to Justice Secretary, Robert Buckland QC was signed by Julia Mulligan (Chair of the National Rural Crime Network), Stuart Roberts (Deputy President of NFU), Mark Bridgeman (President of CLA) and Tim Bonner (Chief Executive of Countryside Alliance).

It said: “There are, sadly, a great many of us who believe that the published NPCC and College of Policing guidelines around exercise and permissible distances to travel to do so, will make managing Covid-19 more difficult, as well as cause untold anxieties across rural communities.

“Rewriting the NPCC / College of Policing guidance cannot be done in isolation. We therefore call on you, working with your colleagues, to urgently review the CPS charging advice, with particular reference to the impact this will have on all communities, including rural communities, and to ensure the key message remains: stay home, save lives.

“Between the signatories of this letter, we represent many millions of residents and thousands of businesses. We receive hundreds of concerned messages a day about people flouting the law, and there are great concerns that the new policing guidance will encourage even more people to carry out unnecessarily long journeys to exercise in rural areas, which will in turn put increased pressures on rural police forces and communities.

“It is specifically the guidance on length of travel versus length of exercise that is likely to cause problems in the battle against Covid-19 and has a particular impact on the rural communities we represent. We, like you, want our countryside to remain safe for communities to use and for people to be able to take vital exercise near to their homes.

“The key message needs to remain: stay home, save lives. Anything which complicates that message is unhelpful.”

The letter in full can be found at www.nationalruralcrimenetwork.net/news/lettertojusticesecretary.