Women Reveal How They Were Fined £200 For Driving Five Miles To Foremark Reservoir

Two women have revealed they were fined £200 for visiting Foremark Reservoir - and told their cups of coffee were classed as a 'picnic'.

Jessica Allen, from Ashby, told BBC News she assumed "someone had been murdered" when she drove to the South Derbyshire attraction on Wednesday afternoon.

But she and friend Eliza Moore described being surrounded by police, read their rights and fined £200 each after driving five miles for a walk.

There has been confusion over what the public can and cannot do during the current lockdown in terms of exercise.

Derbyshire Police - who issued these fines - have also been patrolling Calke Abbey and issuing penalties as we reported this week Police issue fines to non-local visitors at Calke.

The guidance for the current lockdown says people can travel for exercise as long as it is in their "local area".

Derbyshire Police say driving for exercise was "not in the spirit" of lockdown.

The BBC reports Ms Allen as saying: "As we drove in, there was a police van, a police car, and there were loads of police there.

"I genuinely thought someone had been murdered, he place is normally so quiet. The next thing, my car is surrounded. I got out of my car thinking 'There's no way they're coming to speak to us'. Straight away they start questioning us.

"One of them started reading my rights and I was looking at my friend thinking 'This must be a joke'.

"I said we had come in separate cars, even parked two spaces away and even brought our own drinks with us. He said 'You can't do that as it's classed as a picnic'."

Ms Moore, said she was 'stunned' so did not challenge police and gave her details so they could send a fixed penalty notice.

She is reported as saying: "Just seeing a police officer anyway is quite scary for some people and we were really not expecting to be approached and to be told we were doing something wrong.

"We don't want to get away with it if we have broken the rule, but it seems a bit unfair that you can be fined on something that's so vague."