The first Ceredigion safe zones for pedestrians are being put in place in four town centres.
Ceredigion County Council wants to create safe, inviting towns for people to come shopping and to enjoy. With the slow easing of the lockdown in the county and with social distancing requirements still being important, it is necessary to make adjustments to the towns for public health reasons. Ceredigion has prevailed extremely well in its defence against the spread of coronavirus and wishes for this success to continue for the wellbeing of its citizens.
Aberaeron, Aberystwyth, Cardigan and New Quay are the first towns to see these zones implemented.
The ‘space’ created by removing traffic during the day time will allow the public to move around in safety within the zone areas and also facilitate traders and businesses to make more use of the outside space under agreement with the Council.
To do this, some roads will be closed to traffic, pavements will be de-cluttered, visitors will be asked to park away from the town centres for free and signage will be introduced to help visitors maintain safe distancing.
Safe zones will be created by closing roads and removing on-street parking from 11am – 6pm daily from Monday, 13 July 2020. A list of the roads that will be closing in Aberaeron, Aberystwyth, Cardigan and New Quay are available here: www.ceredigion.gov.uk/SafeZones
The Council has acted as quickly as possible to put these arrangements in place and these initial arrangements will be continually reviewed. Information will be shared with traders and business owners within the safe zone and we will continue to work with them to ensure that deliveries of supplies can be facilitated. However, business are advised to make arrangements for deliveries to be made outside the closure period and only when this is not possible to do so contact the Council to arrange for urgent or unforeseen assistance. The same will apply to residents.
This is the first plan as part of staggered measures for towns. The measures have been introduced using emergency powers to ensure towns are safer places to visit for our local communities and visitors to walk around, shop and enjoy what are towns can offer. Given the likely increase in the numbers of people in the County during the summer, this can only be done safely if we create more space for people rather than for cars.
The safe zones are not designed to enable people to drink on the streets of our towns. Where Public Space Protection Orders exists, no drinking will be allowed on the streets unless in a designated space which has an approved licence.
These safe zones will be reviewed to ensure that if there are any amendments needed that these can be made as quickly possible. During the emergency period we will be consulting and engaging with businesses, residents and visitors to consider to the best way forward in the medium to longer term.
Aberporth, Borth, Lampeter and Tregaron will see safe zones introduced in the coming weeks and options will be explored for Llandysul.
Exemptions to the prohibition of motorised vehicles entering these zones will include the emergency services and utility companies but only for emergency/safety related works. Car parks are available around the towns which will be free to use. Additional disabled (blue badge) parking provision will be noted on the plans. Residents are reminded only to present their domestic waste in a suitable container by 8:00am on the day of collection. Further information is available at: www.ceredigion.gov.uk/recycling
