How to easily work out where five miles from your home is on the map (2024)

First Minister Mark Drakeford announced today that people can travel within five miles of their home to see friends and family after months apart.

Speaking at a press conference this afternoon, Mr Drakeford said the rate of infection, or R number, in Wales was "no better than it was three weeks ago" but that the number of cases had been "steadily declining" since the beginning of April.

He added that people had "really missed seeing their families and friends" but that scientific advice was to introduce changes "one step at a time".

" Coronavirus has not gone away - it is a silent spreader," the First Minister said.

The revised restrictions will come into force on Monday, June 1, allowing people from no more than two households to meet up outdoors, including in private gardens.

Strict social distancing measures and instructions to regularly wash your hands will remain in place. You can read the new rules here.

The announcement has created confusion for some who might be unsure exactly where the five miles from their front door ends.

However, a handy online tool from mapdevelopers.com allows you to draw a five mile radius circle around a specific point on a Google map.

For example, if you enter ' Cardiff ' a pin will be dropped in Duke Street, not far from Cardiff Castle and the McDonald's in Queen Street - which will reopen next week for delivery.

If you live in central Cardiff you may be able to travel as far as Penarth for a socially-distanced ice cream, or a walk up the Taff Trail as far as Castell Coch.

How to use the tool

• Visit mapdevelopers.com and type a place name, street, or postcode in the top left corner of the screen under 'address'
• Delete the value in the 'Radius' box to the right of 'Address' and type '5'
• 'Miles' should already be selected to the right of 'Radius', if not, use the drop down menu to select it
• Press 'Enter'
• Zoom into your location as required using the '+' and '-' buttons at the bottom right hand corner of the map, then click on 'New Circle' in the greyed out boxes above the map
• A circle will appear, showing you a five mile radius from the address you entered

A check by us showed that Caerphilly is within a 5-mile radius of Lisvane in the north of Cardiff, and you can just about reach the centre of Cardiff for when non-essential shops are expected to reopen in three weeks time.

Depending on where you live in Radyr, you might not be able to go as far as the coast or visit Cardiff Bay and Penarth.

Swansea

Swansea is right next to the beautiful Gower peninsula and with the weather set to be scorching again this weekend and into next week many people will be keen to enjoy the sun in a socially-distanced way when the new rules come into force on Monday.

We put in a few locations to reveal where you might be able to travel within five miles of your home.

From Gowerton, you can go to parts of Llanelli and Parc Trostre Retail Park, especially useful once non-essential shops reopen.

You can't quite make it to Mumbles Pier but Singleton Park and parts of Swansea Beach are within your reach.

If you are in Port Tennant then a large part of your circle is made up of water but you can take advantage of Aberavon and Swansea beaches as well as Singleton Park.

Although the circle touches the tip of Mumbles Pier in the west, you would have to drive past the 5-mile boundary to get to Mumbles, which would not be allowed.

But if you live in Mumbles, you can reach a large chunk of Gower.

The five mile limit has been put in place by the Welsh Government to avoid new infection hot spots springing up in different areas, were people allowed to travel as far as they wanted.

But people are being reminded that the changes come into force on Monday, June 1, and they are being urged to "stay-at-home this weekend. if you are going out, please stay local."

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