Phase 3 of Newquay’s Social Distancing Plan

Following a review of the second phase of Newquay’s Re-opening Plan that came into place from 03 July in the Town Centre, further social distancing measures are now being put in place to ensure the safety of residents and visitors to Newquay.

Newquay Town Council met with representatives from Newquay BID, Highways, Cornwall Council, Devon & Cornwall Police and Safer Cornwall this week to discuss the emerging issues that have been reported, including observations from marshals, Councillors, and local residents.

The following additional measures have now been agreed to resolve these issues:

• Gover Lane will be closed to all vehicular traffic apart from blue badge holders and delivery vans. The closure will be at the same times as the current Bank Street closure (11am-4pm). Marshalls will manage access and the closure will be set back slightly to allow residential access through to Beachfield Avenue.
• The existing closures will remain during 11am-4pm, but we have the ability to implement the closure early or later than these times should footfall demand.
• Posters about these measures will be given/posted to the businesses/properties along Gover Lane and Central Square area for information.

A great deal of feedback has been received regarding delivery access and disabled parking and so these measures aim to address this, whilst also assisting with the problems on the Central Square bend due to business queuing impacting available pavements.

The following measures are still in place from the second phase of the plan:

• Keep Right whilst walking through the Town Centre
• Most of Bank Street is closed for vehicles between the hours of 11am-4pm with the option to close one hour earlier or later if footfall demands. The road closure has been extended for Bank Street through to the Island Crescent junction (Emergency and residential access will be facilitated) with a diversion in place from Central through to Island Crescent.
• There are hand sanitisers located on public toilets.
• Accessible toilets have been re-opened, these are for anyone to use and not just for people with accessibility issues. We will continue to work on re-opening full facilities as soon as we meet the covid secure requirements. Our phase 2 of opening toilets is likely to take place over the next few days, where more of the ladies/gents facilities will be reopened to support the already open accessible facilities.
• There will be marshals around town to help with the social distancing messaging and to keep everyone safe.

These measures remain under constant review. This is a rapidly changing situation to react to footfall growth and issues as they arise. The Town Council and partners have not had enough time to forewarn individual affected properties of these changes, which hopefully everyone recognises as reasonable. We apologise for the lack of notice, but public safety is our number one priority. We continue to do everything we can to support our important businesses, residents and visitors.

Please do not hesitate to contact the Town Council at office@newquay.town if you have any questions about the plan or if you have any ideas or suggestions to put forward.

Thank you for working hard to ensure Newquay remains a safe place to work, live or visit – we cannot do this without everyone working together.

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