NO CAR PLAN FOR TOWN CENTRE
Cllr Stuart Munro, executive member for business and economic development on Wokingham Borough Council, said “People are already adapting to the requirements such as queuing safely and sanitising their hands in shops, and we’ve been pleased to see so many businesses taking up the offer of the support packs with posters and floor stickers to encourage safe shopping.
“We’ve also had positive feedback from shoppers about the social distancing ambassadors in the town centres.
“They provide a friendly face and reassure our residents that it’s safe to come back to our high streets.”
The pedestrianisation plans were welcomed by Labour councillor Andy Croy, who said that his party had been pushing for this move for some time, and he hoped the pedestrianisation would help the town centre become a “vibrant, thriving cultural place”.
He told Wokingham.Today: “We put the idea in our manifesto a couple of years ago. It’s good to see those ideas are acceptable to the administration.
“Theworst feature ofWokingham town centre is the streams of traffic running through it.
“And only being two days, it provides flexibility and minimises driver disruption.
“It’s great news, and it’ll make more space too, so that people can social distance and use the road to walk on.”
WokinghamBorough Council said that it will continue to adapt its plans as feedback comes in and Government advice is tweaked.
Cllr Pauline Jorgensen, an executive member for highways and transport at the council, said: “When it comes to implementing such a major package of support changes it’s inevitable that not everything will work perfectly first time, or that it will make every resident or business owner happy.
“We continue to review our plans, listen to feedback and make sure they work as best as they can, especially as we adapt to changing government restrictions as lockdown relaxes.
“There are also some cases where we can’tmake changes as the impact on safety or thewider network is too high.
“While we know some residents are keen to see the short stay bays reinstated at the northern end of Peach Street we’ve continued to review it and it simply isn’t practical as we can’t support traffic reversing out onto a single lane of a busy road, or blocking all trafficwhile theywait for a space.”
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