Cosham street hits back at online outrage saying it was TV cameras making it appear they broke social distancing

The VE Day 75th anniversary street party taking place on Hilary Avenue was featured in a segment on BBC News on Friday evening after being recommended to the broadcaster by Portsmouth City Council.

In the footage it made the residents look as if they were much closer together than they actually were in reality, when they were strictly following social distancing rules.

One resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said: ‘The BBC told us to move in our family units and ensured we were strictly apart.

'It was due to the lens angle, that made an appearance that we were closer together than we were.

‘It is really scary and the impact it has had on everybody, when we tried out hardest to stick by the regulations.

‘Nobody breached the 2 metre distance. It is not fair on the families we stuck by the lockdown, we haven’t seen our families and friends for weeks, I’ve lost business because of it.’

Users on social media took outrage following the BBC coverage on Friday night and the resident said that her children have been subject to messages as a result.

She continued: ‘It was such a good community spirit, trying to find a way to safely celebrate and its awful the negative impact its created, it has really put a damper on it. I was up crying during the night because of the negative comments.

‘We always stayed in our families, none of us have broken the rules, everyone has socially distance the whole time. We want to make sure we are not flaunting the rules.

‘I think there were people from other streets who came once they got wind that the BBC were there, but they stayed way back.

‘My children are getting memes sent to them repeatedly, it is not fair to them.

‘The BBC have said that we are not the only street that have had backlash where they appeared to be in a group when they weren’t.

‘If the cameras hadn’t come, we would have done what we were planning, to stay in our gardens.’

A spokesperson for the BBC said: ‘Whilst perspectives on camera can sometimes be deceiving, our journalist made clear in the report that people were social distancing and those close together are from the same family unit.

‘It is not for BBC News to instruct people how they should behave and our presence at this event was only to report on what was already taking place.’

A message from the Editor

Thank you for reading this story on portsmouth.co.uk. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.

Subscribe to portsmouth.co.uk and enjoy unlimited access to local news and information online and on our app. With a digital subscription, you can read more than 5 articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit our Subscription page now to sign up.

Our journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them. By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.