Safety Tips in United Kingdom

To claim right of way on a pedestrian crossing in UK you must put your foot on it, merely standing on the footpath near a crossing is not considered intent to use a crossing.

The danger concerns a situation which happens on an almost weekly basis where someone's actually crossing the road & some idiot is tearing along at twice the speed-limit & mows down the pedestrian.
Even though it should be obvious what the consequences of speeding in a built-up area might be & despite persistent protests (by the general public) over soft-sentencing, the judiciary still treat this kind of thing as a tragic accident & hand out a fine of less than the average weekly wage, or a very light prison sentence of around one year, to the speeding driver who kills or maims a pedestrian.
...This happens even in cases where the offending driver has no licence (e.g. under-age or disqualified through previous convictions), no insurance, has defective tyres & brakes, fails to stop after the crash, drives off laughing, shows no remorse & is only concerned about resulting light cosmetic collision damage to their vehicle.

..as you might do if you are from Europe, do be aware that allowing your dog to foul the streets is taken pretty seriously these days.

There is no one overall penalty. Local councils can set their own penalties. If your dog performs and you do not clear it up, you can be fined a substantial amount.

So always carry some plastic bags with you, and always use them to collect whatever your dog leaves behind. Sometimes you will find special waste bins for dog droppings but if there are none then you must either put it in an ordinary waste bin or take it back with you and put it in your own dustbin.

I think 'environmental crime' is a bit strongly-worded, myself. But allowing your dog to perform on the pavement is inconsiderate and discourteous, and UK public opinion is very much against it. Even if you do not get fined you are likely to be thoroughly told off by locals!

A warning about something you are unlikely to come across, but the possibility does exist.

Most UK marches and demonstrations are entirely peaceful but in some cases UK police tactics can include 'kettling'. This means confining the demonstrators to one particular area, for a given length of time, and then escorting them away from that area after the demonstration.

That is not a problem in itself. UK demonstrations rarely involve any thing other than a lot of shouting and pushing, the occasional smoke 'bomb' and sometimes a few odd missiles (water bottles etc) being thrown. UK police are not armed with guns in their normal duties, and are not armed with guns when they police demonstrations.

'Kettling' will affect you if you accidentally get caught in the 'kettling' area. The fact that you are not part of the demonstration is irrelevant; you will not be allowed to leave until the police have decided to allow this.

So if there is a demonstration it is best to keep your distance. Being 'kettled' may keep you detained in one area for several hours, and will certainly ruin your plans for the day.

'Kettling' is most likely to occur in larger cities (where there are inevitably more demonstrations) but can occur anywhere. It has also, on occasion, been used as a tactic for crowd control at football matches, when holding opposing fans in one area before escorting them to/from their transport.

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THIS TIP IS NOT FOR THE SQUEMISH! Yes, these are pictures of a PUB that has closed. I don’t mean for the night. I mean FOREVER! Oh – the humanity! Over 50 Pubs a week shut here. Just look at these gruesome photos. The opening hours sign doesn’t have any opening hours. Those are solid steel mesh screens up on every door and window.

Can this terrible tragedy be stopped? YES! By YOU! Get yourself down to the Pub and order not 1, but 2 drinks. Keep those Pubs in business so that no one ever has to see the tragedy that these photos depict.

It’s up to YOU.

Double yellow lines at the side of a road mean parking is forbidden.

A single yellow line means you can park for a limited time during set hours ... there will be a head-height sign somewhere nearby to tell you when.

Be careful even if there are no lines. Many towns and cities have streets which are 'residents parking only'. You need to display a permit to park there. and will be fined if you have no permit. Always check for fairly small notices, usually on poles or sometimes on walls.

If you park illegally you may well return to find a 'parking ticket' on the windscreen. These are given out by traffic wardens and police, and require you to pay a steep fine. You won't know when wardens are about ....they can appear as if from nowhere, especially in cities. And you will need to pay the fine, otherwise it will eventually be taken from your credit card by the hire firm (and in that case it may possibly have administration charges added to it).

Many town car parks have machines to give you a ticket, but you will usually need the right change. Many also have height restrictions, so parking a camper van is not easy. Overnight parking is forbidden in many car parks: check the rules for each one individually.

Tickets should be put in the front windscreen or on the dashboard where they can be clearly seen by the car park attendants/traffic wardens. Make sure you are back before the ticket expires; being even 5 minutes late may result in a fine.

If you do not buy a ticket you may have to pay a fine (£40+ is not unusual) and/or your car may be clamped and you will have to pay (a lot) to free it. You can never tell when a attendant or traffic warden is around, so just buy the ticket and stick to the time limit.

We are lucky to have few dangerous plants or animals in the UK, but it is worth being aware of Giant Hogweed, especially if you have children.

It isn't native. It was introduced as a garden plant in the 1800s and gradually spread across the country. It especially likes riversides, which is where I took the photo (the hogweed is the white flowers).

Although we have lots of plants with white lacy flowerheads, you can't miss Giant Hogweed. As its name suggests, it is absolutely huge.

The danger lies in the sap, which reacts with sunlight to cause nasty blisters which can scar. Children are often affected, as they like to break the dead stems to blow through.....hence blisters on lips as well as hands (or even eyes, if they use the stems as 'telescopes').

If you do get sap on your skin, wash it well as soon as possible with soap and water. and keep the skin from sunlight for a few days (the sap can react to cause a permanent mark). See a doctor immediately if the skin is extensively affected, or sap goes near eyes/mouth, or if blisters form.

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It is true that the British talk a lot about the weather, but there is a reason for this. It is always changing. There are officially 4 seasons : Spring, summer, autumn and winter, BUT it is no guarantee that the weather observes them. I have experienced snow in Scotland in May, and just the other day in England [October 2008] we set out on a cold day with sunshine and blue skies, but 4 hours later the clouds were black and threatening. Rain fell, followed shortly by hailstones. An hour later we were driving between fields covered in snow and cars had a layer of white on their roofs.
This makes packing clothes difficult, so in summer always have something warm, just in case. And in autumn and winter expect anything.

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What if your holiday company ceases trading just as you arrive at the airport to jet off? If you get it wrong you just lost ALL your money. The pictures are screen shots of 5 different holiday companies that ceased trading – in the same month – and left customers stranded here and abroad. How do you protect yourself? You need to book holidays that are ATOL protected and/or pay with a protected method. Credit Card users can always get their money back. In the UK if you want to save the credit card charges you can pay by VISA DEBIT (only) and get your money back. Other debit cards? Your money is gone. Only a small percentage of travel insurances will get you home if stranded – read the small print. Then there’s ATOL.

What is ATOL?

ATOL is a protection scheme for air holidays and flights that is managed by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). All tour operators and travel firms selling air holiday packages and flights in the UK as their primary business are required under law to hold a licence called an Air Travel Organiser’s Licence (ATOL). ATOL protects you from losing your money or being stranded abroad somewhere. In most cases you can finish you holiday in your hotel/resort! Then ATOL flies you back home to the UK.

The ATOL website has a search tools that allows you to check if the small business selling you tickets is a member – or not.