Published on: 06 January 2021
Coronavirus cases are rising rapidly across the country and therefore the Prime Minister has told the English population that new lockdown rules have been put in place with immediate effect. He confirmed that:
‘The single most important action we can all take is to stay at home to protect the NHS and save lives’.
You must not leave, or be outside of your home except where necessary. You may leave the home to:
- Shop for basic necessities, for you or a vulnerable person
- Go to work, or provide voluntary or charitable services, if you cannot reasonably do so from home
- Exercise with your household (or support bubble) or one other person, this should be limited to once per day, and you should not travel outside your local area.
- Meet your support bubble or childcare bubble where necessary, but only if you are legally permitted to form one
- Seek medical assistance or avoid injury, illness or risk of harm (including domestic abuse)
- Attend education or childcare - for those eligible
The English lockdown rules can be found here.
Similar rules have been put in place for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Yacht Harbour Association (TYHA) advise marinas to do all they can to support the Government's lockdown rules by not encouraging berth holders to visit or use their boats or encourage the general public to use marina sites for recreation or leisure.
During this lockdown TYHA’s interpretation of Government guidance is as follows:
- COVID-19 secure protocols must be in place and managed for all staffed marina sites
- People can leave home for work purposes where it is unreasonable for them to do their job from home; therefore, marina staff performing roles that cannot be conducted from home may go to their place of work (the marina)
- Access control systems may remain operational to allow people to access the marina site if they have a ‘reasonable excuse’ as specified in the Government rules for England
- Marinas can continue to provide and operate business services including (but not limited to) safeguarding customers boats, maintaining marina infrastructure, boatyard operations, boat servicing and supporting tenants
- Chandleries can operate to supply the marine trade and provide a delivery service to customers
- On site catering should close unless providing food and non-alcoholic drinks for takeaway (until 11pm)
- No overnight stays are allowed on boats except for residential berth holders (where the boat is their Primary Residence)
- Toilets and showers can remain open for site users (with COVID-19 cleaning protocols in place)
TYHA and British Marine will continue to engage with Government departments and if lockdown sector specific guidance is made available an update will be provided to members to reflect any changes.