Town Hall to widen pavements in social distancing hotspots
The Town Hall is planning a programme of alterations to pavements to help people maintain effective social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic.
The safety measures, targeted at seven areas in the borough where people are having difficulty keeping the recommended two metres apart, will see footpaths widened, barriers installed, and parking suspended.
The Town Hall yesterday announced temporary parking restrictions on Broadway Market following widespread concerns around crowding in the area over the weekend.
Public realm chief Cllr Jon Burke said: “While it’s incredibly important that people follow the public health advice on staying at home, except for daily exercise or essential shopping, we’re doing everything we can to help reduce the spread of coronavirus by giving our residents more space for social distancing on our streets wherever the road layout permits.
“By widening pavements at congested sites, we’re reallocating space to pedestrians to ensure that they can follow government public health guidance wherever possible.
“This complements the work we’ve already undertaken to keep our parks open and accessible to all by installing hundreds of banners, posters, and stenciled messages to remind people of public health guidance.”
The seven sites where the council is widening pavements are:
- Sainsbury’s Local, Mare Street (south of Ash Grove)
- Chatsworth Road (various shops)
- Sainsbury’s Local, 27-33 Blackstock Rd, N4 2JF
- Iceland, Mare St, near Well Street
- Sainsbury’s Local, Lower Clapton Road
- Tesco Express, East Road
- Co-Op, New North Road
The measures are said to be the opening stages of a package of emergency policies aimed at improving road safety.
Cllr Burke has pledged to tackle a “serious deterioration we’ve witnessed in driver behaviour” during the lockdown through increasing the borough’s existing 120 traffic filtering sites.
He added that the coronavirus pandemic “is encouraging people to think differently about how much space is allocated to private cars”.
The council has written to Transport for London to request similar measures outside food retailers on the roads it manages.