NWN-18062020

Thursday, June 18, 2020 2

NEWBURY NEWS

Newbury Weekly News

It’s safety first for town centre Council to implement measures for life after lockdown

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WEST Berkshire Council is looking to speed up applica- tions for outdoor diningin a socially-distanced district. The council has also said it has no plans to ban cycling in the town centre or suspend car parking charges again now that shops can reopen. All non-essentialshops were allowed to reopen on Monday, providing they follow safety measures. To prepare for the reopening of high streets across the district, the council has been awarded £124,000 from the Department for Transport to introduce temporarymeasures to help with social distancing in a safe environment for walk- ing and cycling. The allocation is part of the Government’s emergency active travel fund split into two phases. Phase one includes encour - aging travel measures that can be implemented quickly to provide additional road space for walking and cycling. Schemes need to be imple- mented within eightweeks to be eligible for funding. Newbury’ s Northbrook Street and Market Place were pedestrianised on June 1 to make it easier for people to follow social distancingguide- lines and the temporary measure could be in place until September. Report by JOHN HERRING email john.herring@newburynews.co.uk twitter johnh_nwn

Market Place could be a centre for outdoor dining

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from that. “It supports adult social care and our waste services and we need to balance that income against the delivery of those services.” And there are no proposals at this stage to ban cyclists in the pedestrianised area, Mr Winstanley said. “We are trying to encourage active travel... we felt banning cycling would be a disbenefit to those cyclists who would take notice of it and perhaps cyclists who tend to cycle anti- socially would just ignore the ban and carry on anyway. “Ultimately the enforce- ment authority is the police, but clearly their resources are stretched in this time as well.” Leaflets are also being posted out to businesses with advice on how to be coron- avirus secure. Businesses can receive Covid-19 safe certificates and must complete a risk assess- ment, develop cleaning, hand- washing and hygiene prac- tices, help people towork from home, maintain two metres social distancing where possi- ble, and where people can ’t be two metres apart, manage transmission risk. The council is also looking to bring in a town centre administrator, who will directly contact businesses as a single point of contact.

town centre before taking the decision? “Since the closure of the Market Place we are currently facing 30 to 50 per cent lower sales. Adding more tables and chairs won’t help.” Mr Winstanley said: “Newbury does get very busy. “The decision was taken purely on safety grounds to allow shops toreopen safely in the coming weeks. “We do expect a consider- able increase in footfall going forward. “It will get busier and busier in the town centre.” The council’s economic development manager Gabrielle Mancini said: “We have been meeting with Newbury Town Council, the BID, who are essentially the voice of businesses in the town centre, managers of the Kennet centre and Parkway, as well as the police, to put plans in place for pedestrianisation. “There was consultation as widely as we possibly could do in the circumstances.” The council suspended parking charges at the start of the pandemic to assist key workers, but has since re- introduced them. Mr Winstanley said: “ Park- ing supports a number of key services and is a critical source of income for the coun- cil, there’ s no getting away

Dan Cooper dan.cooper@newburynews.co.uk @danc_nwn

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Outlining steps being taken for businesses to reopen in a webinar last week, head of transport and countryside Jon Winstanley said there had been an increased demand for outdoor dining, which had to be balancedagainst encourag- ing active travelling. Businesses need planning permission and a highways licence to place tables and chairs on a public highway. Mr Winstanley said the council was awaiting guid- ance over the relaxation of these rules, but the council would look at its own local policies to see if the process could be streamlined. He said the council would be giving “considerable focus” to the issue and that “road safety is the ultimate priority

and we have to avoid any unin- tended consequences of putting tables and chairs on the highway”. He said the council would be working with Newbury Busi- ness Improvement District (BID) to monitor queues and see whether additional measures might be needed to accommodate queues and allow for social distancing. The briefing alsoheard that businesses had not been directly consulted ahead of the pedestrianisation. One business owner asked: “Newbury is not as busy as Oxford Street in London. “What kind of scientific calculation has been done to take this position. “Have you consulted with any other businesses in the

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