Police move on Plane Enthusiasts

[james60059]

Courtesy of Birmingham Mail: https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/ne...qC634BUO4cu5yVWwgpCtv2AlxnLGFJuTnuQeO4T_fknAw

Police are doing spot checks at the perimeter of Birmingham Airport to ensure anyone going there has a valid reason under Tier 4 - and plane-spotting isn't one of them.

The new Tier 4 restrictions in Birmingham and Solihull have put a dampener on that most British of hobbies - plane spotting.

At this time of year, when people are off work and have time on their hands, the open spaces around Birmingham Airport are filled with enthusiasts eager to have a look at what planes are landing and taking off.

But in 2020 all that has changed - thanks to the tough new coronavirus restrictions.

Birmingham Airport Police has today (Thursday) urged people not to travel there to spend New Year's Day or the weekend indulging in a bit of plane-spotting because they will be breaking Covid rules.
Because Birmingham and Solihull (where the airport is) are both in Tier 4, travelling for the purpose of plane-spotting is not allowed.

Police are stepping up patrols in and around the airfield, to check that any vehicles or pedestrians are there for legitimate reasons. These include businesses making deliveries, passengers going on flights and people picking up friends or family from the airport.

Birmingham Airport Police tweeted a warning to any would-be spotters to stay away.

They posted: "Extremely cold today, but out and about ensuring the safety of Birmingham Airport.

"This is us doing a vehicle check point at the old Elmdon site making sure visits are legitimate - please remember folks we are now in Tier 4, spotting is not a valid reason!"

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[Mojo]

I thought you were allowed to be out of the house to visit a public outdoor place for the purposes of open air recreation?

 

[birchesgreen]

You are but the police just make it up as they go along. They love menacing people who are harmless, but tackling actual criminals? Oh hello officers? Where are you?

 

[Mag_seven]

I thought you were allowed to be out of the house to visit a public outdoor place for the purposes of open air recreation?

But is the perimeter road a "public outdoor space"? I suspect if not they could ask spotters to move on anytime not just during COVID times.

 

[LSWR Cavalier]

People pursuing their hobby, but is it exercise or a sport?

 

[island]

But is the perimeter road a "public outdoor space"? I suspect if not they could ask spotters to move on anytime not just during COVID times.

The list of places where you are permitted to go for outdoor recreation is quite wide-ranging; it includes any outdoor space to which the public are admitted free of charge, and specifically includes the highway. If the road in question is not a highway because it is a private road, then members of the public can already be refused access by virtue of the fact is it private property.

I’m not familiar with the area in question or where precisely they are spotting from, so I do not know whether it meets these criteria.

One other matter though: unless the spotters are all from the one household, or no more than two in number, they would be in breach of the gathering rules for tier 4 (including if they stayed in their cars).

 

[Bantamzen]

<sarcasm /on>

Good to see the Police getting their priorities right. I'm just on the phone to them now as I have just spotted a couple of grannies in the street not social distancing whilst they talk to each other. Hopefully they'll send the armed response units around to neutralise them before they kill millions of, erm, grannies...

<sarcasm /off>