A family who was fined for travelling more than 400 miles for the bank holiday weekend have been slammed online by politicians and Scots.
The group of four were stopped by Cumbria Roads Police on Friday on the M6 North at J43, and told officers they were heading from London to Motherwell for a three-day break.
The round-trip would have seen the family travel 800 miles but current lockdown rules dictate that car journeys should only be used to travel to work and back for keyworkers or for essential shopping.
The SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford stepped in to thank the police after they fined the car's occupants.
READ MORE: Four fined for 800 mile round trip from London to Motherwell
But he also criticised the family's intentions, saying there can be no exceptions to the government's guidelines.
He tweeted: "Thank you @CumbriaRoadsPol for your actions. Non-essential travel cannot be allowed. There can be no exceptions #StayHomeSaveLifes
Thank you @CumbriaRoadsPol for your actions. Non essential travel cannot be allowed. There can be no exceptions #StayHomeSaveLifes Nobody should think of travelling on holiday. There has to be zero tolerance of this kind of behaviour. https://t.co/qw1euUvjoj
— Ian Blackford (@Ianblackford_MP) May 8, 2020
"Nobody should think of travelling on holiday. There has to be zero tolerance of this kind of behaviour."
But while the car's occupants were in clear violation of the lockdown restrictions, Scots are up in arms about where they chose to break the rules.
Since the tweet from the police force was posted yesterday, it has attracted over 1,000 retweets and hundreds of replies.
"Had an hour in Motherwell once, felt like three days anaw," wrote one Twitter user.
Another said: "What's wrong with these people? Who in their right mind would go for a three day break in Motherwell."
READ MORE: Concerns raised after NHS England staff 'asked to make 400-mile trip to Scotland' for coronavirus tests
While a third wrote: "What part of London is so bad that Motherwell is considered a holiday resort?"
Officers for the force stated on Twitter: "This car has just been stopped on the M6 north at J43.
"It had a family of four onboard heading from London to Motherwell for a three-day break, an 800-mile round trip.
"All four reported for Covid breach and advised to return to London."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel