YORKSHIRE Water has closed its reservoir car parks in a bid to encourage everyone to stay at home and following last weekend which saw ‘unprecedented’ numbers of people visiting the sites including at Thruscross, Swinsty and Fewston.

Skipton MP Julian Smith took to Twitter on Sunday to appeal to the company to act, commenting: “Need everyone’s help to close down the number of people travelling to and around North Yorkshire . Need you to enforce the message to people to stay at home to protect lives.”

Gaynor Craigie, land and property manager at Yorkshire Water, said: “We’ve all got to play our part in keeping everyone safe. We’d normally be thrilled to welcome so many visitors to our reservoirs, but with the current government guidelines it makes it incredibly difficult to keep everyone safe.

“We know it’s important to get some fresh air and exercise, particularly at the moment, but it becomes a risky activity when everyone ventures to honey pot sites. Our reservoirs will still be there for everyone to enjoy when the restrictions have been lifted.”