‘Safe zones’ are controversial new measure in Ceredigion community
A NUMBER of towns in West Wales are facing a “disaster” as they emerge from lockdown due to a number of streets being closed off by a Welsh council in an attempt to enforce social distancing.
Ceredigion Council has introduced so-called safe zones in four towns across the county – Aberystwyth, Cardigan, New Quay and Aberaeron. This means that a number of streets are closed to vehicles between 11am and 6pm every day, while some are closed 24 hours a day.
While deliveries made by official delivery vans and small lorries are permitted, all other vehicles are not, putting an end, at least for now, to on-street parking in many town centre areas.
While “safe zones” are intended to make these town centres more welcoming and ultimately safer for shoppers as Wales continues to live under two-metre socialdistancing guidelines, many business owners have criticised the move as it has resulted, they claim, in a reduction in trade compared to what they would have hoped for during the dawn of the post-lockdown age.
A resident in Cardigan said the changes represented an “absolute disaster” for the town’s traders.
One of the most prominent of those traders said he and others in the town feel “mugged off” by what has happened.
“The most annoying thing about it is the fact that I found out on Wednesday last week – just days before the closures were introduced,” said Tom Samways, owner of T Samways High Class Butcher, on Pendre, in the centre of town.
“When I then posted this information on social media it was clear that it was the first time a lot of shopkeepers were hearing about it.
“If I had known a few weeks ago, I could have told a lot of my customers of the changes. Having taken away the parking outside and closed the roads, the council has alienated my disabled and elderly customers, who would normally be able to collect their goods from here.
“The car parks are quite far away and you have to walk uphill to get to Pendre from them, and that’s not an option for many.”
One chief concern for Mr Samways is the fact that local, independent businesses could be cut off by the implementation of the safe zones, while other, larger companies based out of town – there is a Tesco to the north of the town centre with its own car park, for example – will be unaffected. They may even benefit.
“I’ve been running this business for two and a half years and it feels like we could lose two and a half years of building up trade because it’s going to be much easier for people to go to other places out of town that are more convenient,” he said.
“Things have picked up a bit today [last Wednesday] but it was diabolical at the start of the week.
“It was chaos on Monday, because people didn’t know what was going on. I’ve heard that one person nearly got knocked off his bike, and a friend of mine said his child was nearly hit by a bus which was going along their street, which has no pavements, because it couldn’t go down its usual route through town.
“I was told last week that the situation could be changed after three days if it was not working, but I have since heard that the closures will be in place for at least three weeks, maybe more.
“We just feel mugged off. We were not consulted at all; I haven’t spoken to one trader who was consulted on it.
“I think, if they had asked traders in the town, at least 80% would have said no to closing off the streets.”
Twenty miles north along the Ceredigion coast, Trudi Thomas runs Creme Pen Cei, in South John Street in New Quay, right on the seafront. She can see why the council has implemented the road closures, but fears that it will have an impact on trade in the town.
“On the plus side, when we’re busy and people are queuing outside, the road closure means that more people can queue and queue safely, and I’m lucky in that I get deliveries made before the road closure comes into place,” she said.
“But at the moment (last Wednesday lunchtime) it’s completely dead around here. My fear is that people don’t realise that while they can’t park right outside between 11am and 6pm, they can access a car park a few hundred yards away.
“And when it rains, nobody comes to the village. On Monday, for example, it was really miserable, and because businesses can’t open inside there is no shelter.”
Having just reopened following the coronavirus lockdown, Mrs Thomas said the street closures all seem to have been enforced “at short notice” and at a time when businesses are desperate to make up for lost time in an economic sense.
“We’ve only got a few weeks to make enough money to see us through the winter,” she said.
“We’ve lost two-thirds of the summer as it is, and we haven’t had much in the way of communication; it’s been left to us to look online ourselves to make what we can of it - we’ve had no information directly from the council.
“A lot of people here are getting very upset by it all but from my point of view you just have to go along with it. It makes sense for people to have more space due to social distancing but whether it is hurting us economically... I presume it is.
“But it has changed things. It’s much quieter here.”
Ceredigion Council has been asked to comment.