Covid-19 guidelines around exercise and permissible distances to travel to do so is causing 'untold anxiety' to farmers, rural groups warn.
Urgent clarification on coronavirus lockdown conditions have been called for after new police guidelines permit people to travel potentially long distances to exercise.
Hundreds of farmers and rural businesses across the country have reported problems with public access during the virus outbreak.
Many have seen a rise in livestock worrying incidents as well as mounting concern over the spread of Covid-19 to vulnerable rural communities.
It has led farming unions to produce posters for farmers which urges the public to take care and responsibility when accessing the countryside.
One concerned farmer, Dave Shepherd, challenged a cyclist who opened his farm gates without gloves near Dunkeld, Perthshire.
He told the BBC that farms are a 'place of work' and for people to have access to a farmer's workplace during the coronavirus pandemic is 'ridiculous.'
"I was making sure he was going to sanitise gates and things like that as he went through. He just ignored me," he told the broadcaster.
"We have a job to do in farming; there are no staff sat on the sidelines waiting to come in if we become infected."
Elsewhere, a young farmer's video went viral after she pleaded with the public to stay at home and not venture into the countryside.
A joint letter to justice secretary Robert Buckland has now been sent by the NFU, Country Land and Business Association, Countryside Alliance and the National Rural Crime Network.
It says the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) new guidelines would make managing Covid-19 'more difficult as well as cause untold anxieties across rural communities.'
In its new guidelines, the NPCC said it is ‘likely to be reasonable’ for people to potentially travel long distances to exercise.
But the rural groups fear that the guidance goes against what had been previously understood – that exercise should be completed locally to someone’s home to avoid the spread of Covid-19.
The letter reads: "We call on you to urgently review the advice, with particular reference to the impact this will have on all communities, including rural communities, and to ensure the key message remains: stay home, save lives."
The groups highlight how they have received 'hundreds of concerned messages a day' about people flouting the law in the countryside.
There are 'great concerns' that the new guidance will encourage more people to carry out long journeys to exercise in rural areas, which will in turn put 'increased pressures' on rural police forces and communities.
"It is specifically the guidance on length of travel versus length of exercise that is likely to cause problems in the battle against Covid-19 and has a particular impact on the rural communities we represent," the letter adds.
"We, like you, want our countryside to remain safe for communities to use and for people to be able to take vital exercise near to their homes."
