News: The Parish Council have been in contact with the Rural Policing Team regarding the issue of large volumes of visitors at Shear Water and Heavens Gate. See below the reply: The Rural Policing Team go through Shearwater a few times each shift so they are aware of the issues at Shearwater and Heaven’s Gate with traffic and visitors to the area.   The Rural Policing Team  have spoken to Wiltshire Council Highways to discuss the Clearway that is in place that starts in the village and runs for a mile way past the end of the lake itself.    The clearway was decriminalised in the year 2000 making it a civil offence to park on the Clearway and as such Wiltshire Police cannot enforce it for this reason.  If a vehicle is completely off the road then this is not considered an offence, but if they are half on the carriageway and half off, then this is an infringement and an Enforcement Officer (what was a traffic warden) can write them out a ticket. The clearway must be marked by a start and an end sign and DOES NOT require any white lines being painted on the road and as such is correctly marked in situe at present.  It seems that Enforcement Officers have not been in operation during Covid 19 but are now restarting on Monday 1st June 2020.  The Rural Policing Team have asked that they attend the Shearwater Lake so enforcement can be started.    Since Lockdown has been eased slightly, it was always inevitable that once people were allowed to go out with less restriction they would visit in greater numbers due to the close proximity to Warminster, but also people maybe not wanting to visit beaches on the south coast with all the crowding we have seen on social media.  Warminster Officers have been engaging and educating members of the public at Shearwater and removed a number of groups from the lake during the day and car park in the evening. With current Covid restrictions, members of the public are able to visit the lake freely as many times as they wish to exercise, have a picnic as a family, or just sit by the lake.  Wiltshire Police will still engaging with members of the public about Covid 19, but they are not able to enforce Social Distancing as they do in Scotland and Wales.