Crowds gathering to drink alcohol at a popular green space in Newport are breaching coronavirus rules daily and should be stopped, according to people living nearby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ridgeway boasts views across the city and the neighbouring valleys but has become a meeting point for groups during lockdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Victoria Burns has lived in Ridgeway for several years and says people are also ignoring current essential travel laws by driving to the area: \u201cSaturday might be the worst I\u2019ve seen it to be honest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m up there once a day, sometimes twice, when I\u2019m walking a dog and it was like a beer festival up there and that\u2019s quite a common occurrence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen you see all those people out there breaking the rules it makes you feel like not bothering yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEvery time I\u2019ve got in touch with the police to say that there\u2019s people driving to the area, they just say \u201chow do you know they\u2019ve driven?\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Well, because I watched them with my own eyes. But they don\u2019t do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Giles Nuttall also lives nearby and says the problem with cars isn\u2019t just a weekend issue: \u201cThere\u2019s been an influx of traffic seven days a week, not just on the sunny weekends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think in the last six weeks we\u2019ve seen it get really busy and there\u2019s always leftover alcohol cans. It\u2019s just spoiling it for the locals that use the area for their exercise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A spokesperson for Gwent Police said: \u201cThe current alert level in Wales requires everyone to think about their travel plans, stay at home and to only leave home when it is essential. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAlongside our partners, we\u2019re asking the people of Gwent to do the right thing for their communities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cExercise must also start and end from home, and people must avoid driving to exercise.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gathering crowds drinking alcohol at a popular green spot in Newport should be stopped<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":578,"featured_media":27944,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[176,6],"tags":[194,279,288],"coauthors":[574],"class_list":["post-27942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cjsnewsteam","category-news","tag-coronavirus","tag-lockdown","tag-newport"],"yoast_head":"\n