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13
May 2020
Cars back up at Harrogate district's beauty spots as walkers come out in force
By midday more than 50 cars were parked on the verges around Swinsty reservoir today. It was a similar picture at Thruscross. It's the first day since the seven week lockdown that people have been allowed to drive to take exercise and many took full advantage of the new rules.
The new guidelines conflict with the wishes of North Yorkshire County Council, the Yorkshire Dales National Park and Yorkshire Water which owns the reservoirs and their adjacent car parks. All clearly do not want people to drive out into the countryside at this stage.
Like others the Stray Ferret spoke to at Swinsty today, Rachel Wesson and her son, Rory, had driven up from Leeds to walk their dog.
This, though, is the problem for the parish council. Graham Hebblethwaite, the chairman of Washburn Parish Council, says that with car parks shut and people continually arriving, even during lockdown, it has given them a real problem with access and wrecked verges.
He says they now want Yorkshire Water to open the car parks:
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