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May 2020

Last Updated: 29/05/2020

Environment

Yorkshire Water repeats call to stay away from crowded reservoirs

by Calvin Robinson

| 29 May, 2020

While some reservoir car parks are now open, bosses at Yorkshire Water are again urging people to stay away after an influx of visitors. It's the third week in a row that the company has pleaded for people to stay way.

Thurscross Reservoir Photo: Geograph/Matthew Hatton

Yorkshire Water has again urged people to stay away from reservoirs this weekend as its sites have already seen an influx of visitors since lockdown restrictions were eased.

It's the third week in a row the company has pleaded for people not to visit its reservoirs as it continues to put plans in place to protect its key workers.

Car parks at Swinsty, Fewston and Thruscross are currently open after lockdown measures were relaxed and allowed people to travel to visit parks and other attractions for exercise.

It comes as people have flocked to reservoirs in the Harrogate district in the past couple of weeks to make the most of the sunshine. More than 50 cars were parked outside Swinsty reservoir in the first week of restrictions being relaxed.

But bosses at Yorkshire Water have urged people to only visit if they are in walking distance after incidents where cars have been parked inappropriately on nearby roads.

Emily Brady, marketing and content manager at Yorkshire Water, said reservoirs in the county had been busy since restrictions were eased and urged people to stay away.

She said: “Since the government guidelines have changed, we’ve been working hard to devise a plan to keep everyone safe while enjoying our beautiful reservoirs.

“Our key workers visit our reservoirs regularly to do vital engineering checks so we’re putting plans in place to help protect them.

“While we do this, we want to remind everyone to not visit our reservoirs this weekend unless you live within walking distance. Unfortunately, lots of people are still visiting our reservoirs and they’re very busy at the moment.

“We’ve had several incidences of people parking inappropriately on roads nearby causing traffic issues too and this has caused issues for emergency services so please don’t visit this weekend and hopefully we’ll be back to normal soon.”