Measures In Place For Safe Cambridge Re-opening

A package of measures is being rolled out to help shoppers get around the city centre safely as businesses reopen from Monday (15th June).

As businesses start to emerge from the national lockdown caused by the Coronavirus outbreak, Cambridge City Council, Cambridge BID, Cambridgeshire County Council, Cambridgeshire Constabulary, Greater Cambridge Partnership and Stagecoach have been working together to put in place a programme of practical measures to help shoppers, workers and visitors return to the city centre.

From 15 June, people visiting Cambridge city centre can expect to see the following changes:

- City centre stewards offering advice and help with the new management measures, including social distancing, wayfinding and other changes to the city centre;

- Widened footways along sections of Regent Street, Bene’t Street and Bridge Street using temporary barriers;

- Advisory vehicle restrictions on Market Hill to allow safe operation of the city centre market;
- Fully pedestrianised areas and one-way systems with enforcement of traffic restrictions;

- Signage to encourage people to walk on the left hand footway to help with safe pedestrian flows on narrow pavements;

- One way access to narrow passageways such as All Saints Passage and Market Passage;

- New pedestrian and cycle signage to help pedestrians and cyclists navigate the city centre safely;

- Social distancing floor stickers to be used by businesses to help with customer queue management. These are also in place in multi-storey car parks to help customers queuing at payment machines and to guide access to and use of lifts and stairwells;

- The central market will continue to be open with traders using perimeter pitches only. The council is developing a plan for reopening as many of the market’s other pitches as possible, taking account of the physical layout of the market, with its high stall density, narrow inner aisles and surrounding highway frontage which presents a range of health and safety challenges.

All of these measures will be monitored and may need to be adapted depending on their effectiveness and how national guidance changes.

Cllr Rosy Moore, Executive Councillor for Climate Change, Environment and City Centre, said: “We know that sticking to social distancing advice is really important and that is why our plan for the reopening of the city centre focuses on that.

“Businesses are emerging from an extremely difficult time and we want to do all we can to support them as they welcome shoppers back.

“Our city centre has a medieval layout that includes narrow lanes and streets, posing real challenges when it comes to keeping people safely apart.

“There is no doubt that we will need everyone who is visiting or working in the city centre to help by staying two metres apart to make it work.

“I would also encourage anyone travelling in to walk or cycle if they can. Anyone using public transport should follow social distancing measures and the guidance on use of face coverings.

“This is a testing time for all of us and as we move forward with our package of measures we will continue to work together to keep everything under review and make further changes where we need to.”

See a map of the changes here