Residents pedestrianisation consultation outcome
Safety and Recovery: Making more space for people in the High Street this summer
Purpose
The consultation was undertaken by Arundel Town Council and the Chamber of Commerce to identify the views of residents and businesses on a proposal to close the lower High Street during summer weekends to enhance safety and social distancing and to help the town’s economic recovery.
A huge thank you too everyone who responded. In addition to the ‘Yes’/’No’ answers, people really engaged with the question of safety and economic recovery in Arundel, and very valuable suggestions were made.
The Results
Over 71% of residents supported the proposal, however businesses were divided, with only a minority (43%) in favour and clearly some businesses felt they would not benefit from the closures.
Other Benchmarks
The other benchmarks which we set were obtaining approval for the road closure scheme and securing grant funding. Disappointingly, after giving it a lot of thought, Arun District Council concluded that the guidelines under which they are working would not allow them to use money from their government £143,718 ‘Safe Reopening of High Streets’ fund to pay for the stewarding of Arundel’s proposed weekend road closures. However we have been encouraged to submit alternative proposals.
Conclusion
Given the opinion of the majority of businesses and the funding issue the council and the Chamber of Commerce have decided that they cannot implement the proposal. Drawing on some of the suggestions made during the consultation other ways of supporting the safe revival of the town’s economy are being considered.
Arundel Town Council has been working with Arun District Council and the Chamber of Commerce to get social distancing signage placed around visitor ‘hot spots’ in the town centre and at Swanbourne Lake. Surveys are showing that Arun has a relatively low level of Coronavirus infections at present and the task now is to keep it that way during the peak visitor season.
For a full report please visit:
https://www.arundeltowncouncil.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Arundel-Town-Council-Survey-Announcement.pdf