Visitors head to Peak District as coronavirus restrictions are eased – but not all residents are happy

Across the Peak District there are signs about coronavirus on what sometimes feels like every other road. “Stay safe,” they tell passing drivers. “Stay at home.”

They range from electronic billboards under the control of local authorities to makeshift messages placed outside homes and businesses here. “Protect the NHS,” reads one blackboard outside a local hotel. “Vehicles parked here will be photographed and shown to the police.”

By Wednesday morning, these signs – now advice, rather than law – were being resolutely ignored.

Hikers, day-trippers, dog-walkers, picnickers, photographers, cyclists, anglers and even campers were all enjoying this national park following the easing of Covid-19 restrictions from midnight.

With people in England now free to take their fresh air wherever they want – even if its several hours from their home (and as long as mum and dad aren’t both there) – hundreds from across the north and midlands had chosen to do so at attractions such as Dovedale Stepping Stones, Mam Tor and Derwent Reservoir.

“I’ve been waiting to come here for two months,” Katie Duffy, a 21-year-old barber from Coventry, told The Independent. “We were so excited to escape the house we almost chucked the tent in the car and came last night but we didn’t know if that would be pushing the rules. That fresh air, though. God, amazing.”

She, along with housemate Holly Clifton and dog Charlie, had driven an hour and half to be at Ilam Park for 10am. They planned on staying all day: walking, exploring and taking photos. They’d ended up bringing that tent as it happened – “just in case”.

Their enthusiasm was shared by many here. One couple, Gurpreet and Helen Randhawa, said the lockdown constituted the longest they had ever been without going on a hike together since they first met at a university hiking club. They were now 28 and 29, and had seven-month-old daughter Jasmine in tow.

“Every walk we’ve done over the last couple of months has started and finished at our front door,” said Helen, a software developer. “That’s in Derby so not exactly the great outdoors.”

Another visitor, Greg Butler, was a landscape photographer. “I’ve been taking a lot of pictures in my garden in Leek,” he said as he set up his camera at Dovedale Stepping Stones. “It’s not quite the same.”

The only problem is, perhaps, that for people actually living here in the Peak District – a 550 square mile stretch of rural uplands spreading across six different counties – those roads signs which visitors encounter are not expressing an out-of-date sentiment. They are not there because the owners have forgotten to take them down. “Stay home” is still meant by many in the towns and villages here.

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“I understand the benefits to mental and physical health of people getting out into the countryside and I don’t wish to deny anybody that,” said Hardyal Dhindsa, Derbyshire’s police and crime commissioner, over the phone. “But what my constituents in the Peak District tell me is that they are genuinely concerned about the health risks to their communities from large numbers of visitors flocking to the area. People have spent nine weeks isolating and they fear that hard work will be wasted if the virus is brought into their communities now.”

It was his force, incidentally, that caused something of a storm after posting photos on Twitter of people walking dogs – entirely alone – in the area in an apparent attempt to shame others from doing the same. He stands by that action, for what it’s worth: “It was one of a number of different ways of trying to communicate that the public should stay in their own [areas],” he says.

However, he accepts that visitors’ reasons for descending on the area appear well-founded enough.

Numbers coming here have already been on the rise over the last couple of weeks after a drop of 95 per cent in the first fortnight of the lockdown, according to figures compiled by the Peak District National Park Authority (PDNPA).

Although there was no obvious uptick on Wednesday, the feeling is that eased restrictions will probably see significantly more people arriving over the weekend. That, in turn, could make social distancing far more difficult. If that sounds implausible in such a wide open space, think of the pictures of people snaking up Everest and you have an idea of what, for instance, Derwent Edge can look like on a summer’s day.

As a result, both Sarah Fowler, chief executive of the PDNPA, and Richard Fitzherbert, chairman of Derbyshire Dales District Council, have, separately, urged people to reconsider any trips they may be planning.

“Continuing to use local parks and outdoor areas close to your home can continue to provide the crucial breathing space for you and for us,” said Ms Fowler.

Visitors, councillor Fitzherbert told The Independent meanwhile, brought considerable risk to locals but – given local shops, cafes, pubs, hotels and attractions were all largely shut – almost no economic benefits. Essentially: the worst of both worlds? “To some extent, yes,” he says.

Yet, nonetheless, back at Dovedale, on a Wednesday morning, when visitors often have 20 metres, let alone two, separating them from others, it seems churlish to suggest they shouldn’t be here.

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“We’ve spent nine weeks unable to escape the concrete jungle,” said Simon Davis, visiting from Coventry with partner Leanne Farrell and their two children Annabelle, 6, and two-year-old Eden. They have been to parks, added nursery nurse Leanne, but “you have a toddler with you and they just end up getting upset because they see the swings and can’t go on them.”

Do they appreciate why residents here may be worried? They do but believe a balance needs to be struck. “The Peak District belongs to us all,” said 32-year-old caterer Simon. “Just because you live here, you don’t have a right to ban others, do you?”

The family were to have a picnic later. “We’re not going into any shops or even into the villages,” he said. “How can that be a risk to anyone?”

It was a question that at least a couple of residents felt had some merit. Retired teachers David and Sue Crossfield were out walking in Ilam Park when approached – from two metres – by The Independent. As it happens, they explained, they lived in nearby Ashbourne, in the Peak.

“We’re very lucky,” said Sue. “It’s a beautiful part of the world. We must remember that, be generous and not begrudge others coming here to share it, especially in a time of crisis.”