A man has been fined for breaking the coronavirus lockdown at Potters Field Park by City Hall at the weekend.
Officers at Southwark say they don’t want to dish out the new £60 fines unless absolutely necessary.
According to Southwark’s Inspector Owen Pyle, the vast majority of residents obeyed the social distancing rules at the borough’s many parks this weekend, despite the green spaces being busy.
But one man who did not heed officers’ warnings to move on was slapped with the penalty notice following a ten-minute standoff with cops at the SE1 park.
“He simply refused to engage with us,” said Inspector Pyle on Tuesday morning. “He wasn’t out for essential exercise and when told to leave he did not.”
However, the inspector added that only around fifteen per cent of those out did not comply with social distancing rules, and all the others went home when asked by police.
“To my knowledge it’s just the one [fine],” he said. “We’ve had a number of people arrested for breaching the lockdown but they were arrested in connection with other offences.”
Among them are possession of Class A drugs and driving a suspected stolen vehicle.
A challenge for local cops is to persuade those taking to green spaces for sunbathing or beers in hot weather to comply, even if they don’t personally feel their behaviour is spreading the coronavirus.
Asked to explain why police enforce the lockdown against sunbathers, Inspector Pyle said: “For me it’s two-fold. Firstly it’s not an essential purpose to come out of your house.
“It’s a breach of the lockdown, it doesn’t have any respect for the fact we’re in a lockdown.
“Secondly, as soon as people see that [sunbathing] is acceptable, we’ll get more people coming out, they won’t socially distance and parks won’t be able to be used.
“It would become difficult for us to enforce the lockdown.”
Pyle added that while crowds may be able to socially distance on grass, parks have “pinch points” on the paths, meaning the two metre rule will not always be followed.
Using loudspeakers on police vans, cops have been patrolling Southwark’s largest parks warning residents to go home unless out for essential exercise.
One difficulty is that in some, like Burgess Park, once officers have cleared one end, more people have come in from the opposite end, starting the task over again.
“It’s a challenge for us – once we’ve done one end, people have come in the other end,” he said.
While unable to give specific numbers for operational reasons, Inspector Pyle said more teams will be on-duty to patrol parks over the long Easter bank holiday weekend.
Asked by the News whether there had been any need for greater police action in supermarkets to ensure socially distancing is followed, the senior cop said this has not been needed.
“I think people understand there’s no issue with food shortages,” he said. “There’s been no issue in the last couple of weeks.”
Staffing levels among local police also remain good, despite some staff having to self isolate over the coronavirus, he said.
This means police do have the resources to deal with breaches of the lockdown – and Inspector Pyle encouraged residents to continue to report them.
“I’d like to thank the vast majority of people who are complying,” he said. “We’ve got enough resources to deal with it so please keep reporting.
“To those who aren’t complying: take a step back, and think about whether you really need to do what you are doing.”