(15 Feb 2021, 3:30 pm)Storx wrote They'll still be out, won't have had time to process them yet . Got to have one in each angle and 5 different spots. Plus the same for all the Metro Replacements aswell.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ten6083/

This geezer was snapping the pink Citaros in Washington, and the X9/X10 coaches/Metro replacements in Felling today. Canny daily exercise that mind. Looking at his post history I'm assuming he's training for the next GNR.

(15 Feb 2021, 8:00 pm)mb134 wrote https://www.flickr.com/photos/ten6083/

This geezer was snapping the pink Citaros in Washington, and the X9/X10 coaches/Metro replacements in Felling today. Canny daily exercise that mind. Looking at his post history I'm assuming he's training for the next GNR.

I think he's going for a walk around Britain where he's been haha. Prudhoe, Rowlands Gill, Sunderland, Washington, Felling, Newcastle. Just hope to god he's driving to these places otherwise he's taking the piss though really. It's not as if Felling to Washington is one bus either.

(15 Feb 2021, 8:09 pm)Storx wrote I think he's going for a walk around Britain where he's been haha. Prudhoe, Rowlands Gill, Sunderland, Washington, Felling, Newcastle. Just hope to god he's driving to these places otherwise he's taking the piss though really. It's not as if Felling to Washington is one bus either.

2 buses but quicker than 56 to Newcastle

(15 Feb 2021, 8:09 pm)Storx wrote I think he's going for a walk around Britain where he's been haha. Prudhoe, Rowlands Gill, Sunderland, Washington, Felling, Newcastle. Just hope to god he's driving to these places otherwise he's taking the piss though really. It's not as if Felling to Washington is one bus either.

He's driving. Claiming to be "essential food shopping" yesterday on all photos. Why someone in Prudhoe has to do "food shopping" in Concord/Washington 3-4 times a week is beyond me...

I'm sick of the generalised comments that enthusiasts (particularly younger ones) are all breaking the rules, it's either assumed we are because many of the younger enthusiasts are seen as "window lickers" or because of instances like this. I did think about a quick drive to Stockton yesterday to photo one or two of the coaches but couldn't justify it and I am in a bad enough state mentally right now from this lockdown without people jumping down my throat if I were to do so.

I've not though of doing it. I'm in that part where I feel it's stupid now. I enjoy photography round my area. Photos come from others places if I'm there for a reason or another

(16 Feb 2021, 2:41 pm)Jimmi wrote He's driving. Claiming to be "essential food shopping" yesterday on all photos. Why someone in Prudhoe has to do "food shopping" in Concord/Washington 3-4 times a week is beyond me...

I'm sick of the generalised comments that enthusiasts (particularly younger ones) are all breaking the rules, it's either assumed we are because many of the younger enthusiasts are seen as "window lickers" or because of instances like this. I did think about a quick drive to Stockton yesterday to photo one or two of the coaches but couldn't justify it and I am in a bad enough state mentally right now from this lockdown without people jumping down my throat if I were to do so.

For me, the issue is that there's no bloody need to get a photo of a bus on the first day. It's going to be the same buses running on the same route for the foreseeable, there's nowt special about it at all.
It's not like the first lockdown when allocations were all over the place, where I could potentially see why people might want to get some photos (although I still think it's stupid to go out of your way for it)

And to be clear, if I was to say I hadn't broken any of the rules, I'd be lying. It's all about using your common sense.
If you're driving around taking photos, not going near anyone else, then you're posing no more of a risk than if you sat at home. 
It's the people using the buses needlessly I have a problem with.

I've plenty of excuses at the ready if I wanted to try out the coaches.
But quite frankly I don't care enough, and I can't be arsed to traipse all the way up just to sit on a different bloody bus! (sorry, coach)

(16 Feb 2021, 4:22 pm)streetdeckfan wrote If you're driving around taking photos, not going near anyone else, then you're posing no more of a risk than if you sat at home. 

Well except you’re putting yourself more at risk of having an accident and needing the NHS to attend to you while they’re already extremely busy.
The government guidance says that you must stay at hone except where necessary in certain circumstances.
Exercising should be limited to once per day and you should not leave your local area. 
Staying in your local area means stay in the village, town, or part of the city where you live.

But at the end of the day if he can’t wait a while longer to get out and snap buses all over the region then whatcha gonna do. He might get stopped and fined. He certainly won’t be able to put his hand on his heart and say he did all he could to support the NHS, country etc.

It's stupid at the end of the day. There isn't anything we can do. I mean if your out in the car or you need to take public transport because of reason I can understand but going miles from one place just to photo it

It's really up to him what he does in his own time. It's his own responsibility to understand and abide by laws, and at the same time can have no complaint if he's pulled up for it. He is on here, so he may wish to comment, but then again he might not?

An enthusiasts forum obviously cannot enforce the rules, but we can point to them: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/national-loc...ay-at-home.
If anyone is that bothered about it, you can seek support here: https://www.police.uk/tua/tell-us-about/...-measures/

Stay safe and be responsible.

Well, I was told (by someone on here) that it was nobodys business to why people are out and about regardless of their activities. In the end it's for the police to decide if the person should be fined or not. And to be fair they won't be the only one, there be people everywhere doing it. Heck I even went for a little drive after my hospital appointment the other day, it was just nice to see something other than the hospital, my house and garden. Especially when I've been sidelined for the last 7 and a half months, think since injuring my leg, I only went out to Toon the Saturday before Xmas for some photoing, then nothing since then until I took a few snaps during the previously mentioned drive. Did my mental health a world of good, and got me out of my bad mood. So since been told by that person, that it's no ones business what someone else does, or the fact that it's nobodies business what I do. Just let them get on with it.

As for risk of being injured in a car crash, there's just the same risk at home as in falling down stairs or falling over in general, banging your head, burning yourself. Or maybe your mental health ends up rock bottom and you end up trying to go there, I've certainly thought about it in the past. Even going out for a walk has it's perils, you could get ran over. Life is unpredictable and you just have to go with the flow.

If he's going out for the sole purpose of photography, then yes it would be an issue legally.

However, the catchily named Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers) Regulations 2020 don't define "local" nor "exercise". As long as he is "exercising" and/or "food shopping" in England then there isn't a problem by law.*

I'm not exactly impressed that people are still going out to take photos, perhaps it's morally wrong, but there's certainly nothing wrong legally - as long as he's doing what's allowed in the regulations too.

*GOV.UK shows heavily worded (optional) guidance mixed with law. If you're wanting to check the actual law, visit legislation.gov.uk.

In fairness if you driving to places it's not as bad (still not great) it's those who are using buses to do so putting others and drivers at risk that annoy me especially though videoing buses which there has been enough of since the start of the pandemic which there's no excuse.

(17 Feb 2021, 8:19 am)omnicity4659 wrote If he's going out for the sole purpose of photography, then yes it would be an issue legally.

However, the catchily named Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers) Regulations 2020 don't define "local" nor "exercise". As long as he is "exercising" and/or "food shopping" in England then there isn't a problem by law.*

I'm not exactly impressed that people are still going out to take photos, perhaps it's morally wrong, but there's certainly nothing wrong legally - as long as he's doing what's allowed in the regulations too.

*GOV.UK shows heavily worded (optional) guidance mixed with law. If you're wanting to check the actual law, visit legislation.gov.uk.

From the spots he's taking those photos and him attempting to use the excuse of 'food shopping' then he's definitely breaking the law 100% as there's no where to shop at the spot he's at in Felling nor is there a reason to drive along there from Prudhoe to get to a shop and there's not really anything at Concord, not to the sense you can blag you came from Prudhoe to get to but that's a different subject and isn't for me to judge.

(17 Feb 2021, 8:19 am)omnicity4659 wrote If he's going out for the sole purpose of photography, then yes it would be an issue legally.

However, the catchily named Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers) Regulations 2020 don't define "local" nor "exercise". As long as he is "exercising" and/or "food shopping" in England then there isn't a problem by law.*

I'm not exactly impressed that people are still going out to take photos, perhaps it's morally wrong, but there's certainly nothing wrong legally - as long as he's doing what's allowed in the regulations too.

*GOV.UK shows heavily worded (optional) guidance mixed with law. If you're wanting to check the actual law, visit legislation.gov.uk.

When you look at the restrictions, you really need to check if they say you 'should' do something, or 'must' do something. There's a massive legal difference between the two.

"You should minimise time spent outside your home, but you can leave your home to exercise. This should be limited to once per day, and you should not travel outside your local area"
Basically, legally you can ignore all of that.
You can spend as much time as you want outside of your home (as long as it's for one of the permitted reasons), you can leave the house as many times as you want, and you can leave your 'local area'. 

But how do you define your local area? I'm in Bishop, does that mean I can't go to Durham or Darlington, or even Spennymoor? Or does staying within County Durham count as 'local'.
Or, since the councils seem to love the idea of the North East acting as one when it comes to applying restrictions, does that mean I can go to Newcastle? 


Then we also have the loophole of leaving home for 'work'.
If I decide I want to go self employed as a transport photographer, and set myself up as a sole trader.
I'm technically doing 'work', so does that mean it's alright to go out and take photos of buses?

How does someone define what local means, everyone has different ideas on the meaning. I define local as somewhere within a 30 minute drive of my house, which is an area bordered roughly by Ashington / Morpeth, Hexham (on a good day), Dalton Park / CLS.

(17 Feb 2021, 1:04 pm)Rapidsnap wrote How does someone define what local means, everyone has different ideas on the meaning. I define local as somewhere within a 30 minute drive of my house, which is an area bordered roughly by Ashington / Morpeth, Hexham (on a good day), Dalton Park / CLS.

Exactly, but others might say local is somewhere you can easily travel on foot.

And you can't just pick an arbitrary distance like 5 or 10 miles, because what about the people that live out in the sticks? You'd then have to make an exception for them, but then that's discriminating against people who live in a large town.

Like I say, it all comes down to using your common sense, and being consistent.

Hypothetically, if I drove all the way to Newcastle to go to Tesco instead of going to the one in Bishop, but I only ever do my shopping there once a week, am I not less of a problem than someone who goes to the shops locally every night to get all the reduced items?

(17 Feb 2021, 11:45 am)streetdeckfan wrote When you look at the restrictions, you really need to check if they say you 'should' do something, or 'must' do something. There's a massive legal difference between the two.

"You should minimise time spent outside your home, but you can leave your home to exercise. This should be limited to once per day, and you should not travel outside your local area"
Basically, legally you can ignore all of that.
You can spend as much time as you want outside of your home (as long as it's for one of the permitted reasons), you can leave the house as many times as you want, and you can leave your 'local area'. 

But how do you define your local area? I'm in Bishop, does that mean I can't go to Durham or Darlington, or even Spennymoor? Or does staying within County Durham count as 'local'.
Or, since the councils seem to love the idea of the North East acting as one when it comes to applying restrictions, does that mean I can go to Newcastle? 


Then we also have the loophole of leaving home for 'work'.
If I decide I want to go self employed as a transport photographer, and set myself up as a sole trader.
I'm technically doing 'work', so does that mean it's alright to go out and take photos of buses?

The guidance defines what they mean by local (someone quoted it a few messages up this page) and it is actually significanly more restrictive than all the examples you have given.  Basically, it would mean your neighbourhood within Bishop, or, at a push, the whole of Bishop itself.

Sadly no amount of legislation is ever going to cover every eventuality and as long as people look for and exploit loopholes, we will continue to pingpong in and out of lockdowns and tiered restrictions.  The basic principle of 'is it essential' really isn't hard to grasp.  Regardless of how clever an argument someone can make around why they aren't technically in breech of the letter of the regulations, going out for non-essential purposes (which standing around photographing buses most certainly is) is very clearly the opposite of the public health message and shows a lack of any regard for social responsibility.

(17 Feb 2021, 1:32 pm)streetdeckfan wrote Like I say, it all comes down to using your common sense, and being consistent.

Aye. I've got absolutely no problem with someone going out to take pictures on their daily exercise, their way to the shops, to be honest even within a very small (like literally 5 minutes tops) drive of their home. It's when folk are going on treks across the region that they just seem to be taking the mick. I get that for some not being able to go on public transport is detrimental to their mental health, and those people have my sympathies but I'm not sure it excuses putting other people at risk. Ultimately these repaints, new vehicles etc. are still all going to be there in a month or so when restrictions are eased, maybe in the mean time download Bus Simulator on the PlayStation and have some fun with that instead.

(17 Feb 2021, 1:32 pm)streetdeckfan wrote Hypothetically, if I drove all the way to Newcastle to go to Tesco instead of going to the one in Bishop, but I only ever do my shopping there once a week, am I not less of a problem than someone who goes to the shops locally every night to get all the reduced items?

Some people have little choice but to do this BTW.

From looking at TEN6083's flickr profile it notes he is from Prudoe/Washington so one would hazard a guess he lives between addresses potentially hence why he gets a about lot, secondly having spoken with personally when I bumped into him when out myself he does have learning difficulties and for someone like myself who has Autism (Aspergers Syndrome) it can be very hard to stay in the house 24/7 as personally I go insane which why I have chosen to continue to work in office so I have routine and good mindset on the mental health side of things.

For me Photography is one of those things that gets me out the house during my off days and personally I have been stopped by the Police on 3 occasions in the last 12 months and the response I got from those officers were that was nothing they could do by law to stop me from taking photographs as it is a hobby at the of the end of the day, not only that it one you can do socially distanced but I also find it does help be feel better mentally as I am still able to do something I enjoy.

A lot of my photos from recent months have been taken around Gateshead given that I live in Low Fell now or in Newcastle when going to/from work or getting shopping etc, as for opinion on staying local for me that would be not going out of the region I am in which is Tyne & Wear/County Durham, I certainly given current restrictions would not be travelling to the likes of Manchester or London as an example as much as I would like a change of scenery like everyone else no doubt does right now.

Not that people are travelling on public transport either so again you can socially distance as long your being mindful of others around you by wearing a face covering etc I don't see an issue in taking photos across the local region as I see it as being no different to somebody driving from Gateshead to Whitley Bay or Shields for example to take the dog for a walk which a lot of people are doing and do so on a daily basis.

Nobody is perfect and we have all broken the rules in some shape or form and we all have different opinions, we will agree to disagree on things but what I have put above is how I view it personally.

(17 Feb 2021, 7:45 pm)stagecoachbusdepot wrote The guidance defines what they mean by local (someone quoted it a few messages up this page) and it is actually significanly more restrictive than all the examples you have given.  Basically, it would mean your neighbourhood within Bishop, or, at a push, the whole of Bishop itself.

Sadly no amount of legislation is ever going to cover every eventuality and as long as people look for and exploit loopholes, we will continue to pingpong in and out of lockdowns and tiered restrictions.  The basic principle of 'is it essential' really isn't hard to grasp.  Regardless of how clever an argument someone can make around why they aren't technically in breech of the letter of the regulations, going out for non-essential purposes (which standing around photographing buses most certainly is) is very clearly the opposite of the public health message and shows a lack of any regard for social responsibility.

But as the other point I kept making was that's not the law, that's guidance. Legally, you can disregard it.
Actually, having a quick skim through the law, there's actually no mention of having to stay local at all!

Anyway, like you say as long as people find the loopholes, it's not going to work.
And to be clear, I'm not promoting breaking the rules, I just like playing devil's advocate!

(17 Feb 2021, 10:18 pm)Adrian wrote Some people have little choice but to do this BTW.

I'm not saying it's a problem, but to me going a longer distance and being exposed once is less of a risk than 'staying local' but getting exposed countless times.


PS, is it just me or are multi quotes completely buggered on the website now?

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