Saxmundham

Proposals for town centre changes to help safely re-open our local economy

The Town Council has been asked to put forward proposals for changes to the way the town centre works, including traffic management measures, for helping businesses and keeping citizens safe, as economic life re-starts after the lockdown. The measures would last for 6 to 9 months, and would be strictly temporary. East Suffolk Council has a grant from government of £222,000 for the whole area, which town councils and business groups can apply for.  If you wish to give your view, please do so very quickly as East Suffolk want proposals by Friday!

A consultation (“virtual”, by Zoom) meeting of town councillors took place yesterday (Tuesday) to discuss the various options, which Town Council Chair Jeremy Smith had earlier set out in an 8 page “options paper”.

The key issue, it was felt, is that the pavements in the High Street are at many points quite narrow, which means that it is not possible for people to pass each other and keep to social distancing rules – even if the recommended distance is reduced from 2 metres to 1 metre (or yard!).

The favoured option is to lower the speed limit in the High Street to 10 mph and give pedestrians priority. This is seen as far simpler to implement – especially at short notice –  than e.g. a one-way scheme or full pedestrianization of the High Street.  There would also be a one-way ‘advisory’ system for pedestrians on High Street pavements, to reduce the need for going into the roadway 

Town Clerk Karen Forster has today sent out a consultation email to local businesses, seeking their very urgent response.  This is the main part of the text:

“As you aware the Government is relaxing the emergency restrictions and Saxmundham Town Council is keen to assist in re-opening the local shops and businesses. We are approaching the District Council with our proposals so as to access funding, but we need to do this by Friday 12^th.

Our objectives are to assist you in opening and encouraging custom yet at the same time enabling the public to keep to social distancing rules when walking along our narrow pavements.

The proposals are to

·        Reduce the speed along the High Street from the Chantry Road Traffic Lights to Street Farm Road preferably to 10 MPH which will help if people need to move into the road when passing each other.

·        Reduce the speed along Station Approach and around the Market Place to 10 MPH for the same reasons.

·        Introduce prominent signs showing eg:  “Slow Down – Pedestrians in the Road due to Social Distancing” along with the change in speed for cars. These would be sited at both ends of town as well as Market Place and Station Approach road.

·        Introduce cones so as to widen the pavements at the pinch points of the Chemist and where Fromus Square, next to the bank, joins the High Street.

·        Mark the High Street as one-way pedestrian routes such as you may have seen introduced at Southwold and other market towns. If people then have to step into the road they will be facing the on-coming traffic. It would be an advisory system which is done with pedestrian’s safety in mind. It would go south to north from Emma K to the Store on the right-hand side and start from the Bell to the Chemist & Chantry Road lights from north to south. People could cross the road at any point where safe to do.

·        Potentially we will be widening part of the pavement in the Market Place to enable cafes to operate.

We have contacted you as a local business for your opinion. We apologise for the short notice (from East Suffolk Council) but we would like any comments that you might have by first thing Thursday 11^th . Because our proposals impact on the road system, we are having to liaise with Highways at Suffolk County Council and take their advice.”

If you would like to give a view on any aspect of this, please do so by close of play on Thursday 11th June (apologies for such a short window!) to: townclerk@saxmundham-tc.gov.uk 

The longer options paper and annex of photos of the town centre are available below, as is a pdf of photos showing the systems put in place in Southwold (one way pavements) and Framlingham (markings for queueing)

CV proposals for town centre

photos of high st 

photos of Southwold and Fram systems