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Making Sidmouth streets safe and welcoming

  • by JW

“Making most of the newly-pedestrianised areas by spreading out on to the street with clothes stalls and outdoor cafes.”

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All sorts of steps have been taken to help Sidmouth open up safely.

Certainly, there has to be a sense that the town is welcoming:

Making Sidmouth pubs and cafés safe and welcoming – Vision Group for Sidmouth

And much of this can be done by making the streets feel safe:

Strategies to open up Sidmouth: new safeguards – Vision Group for Sidmouth

Strategies to open up Sidmouth: making people feel safe – Vision Group for Sidmouth

One of the ways to do that has been to extend and widen the pavements:

New cycle lanes and wider pavements – Vision Group for Sidmouth

Part-pedestrianisation for Sidmouth town centre – Vision Group for Sidmouth

Which should make the town centre a little more inviting:

Street café culture for Sidmouth? – Vision Group for Sidmouth

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The latest from the chair of the town council is to encourage café and shop owners to make use of all of these measures, as reported in the Herald:

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Sidmouth High Street with bunting and flags

Let’s get more atmosphere going in the town’ – Sidmouth traders urged to embrace the public spaces

Sidmouth traders are being urged to make the most of the newly-pedestrianised areas by spreading out on to the street with clothes stalls and outdoor cafes. Town council chairman Ian Barlow said a lot of work and money had gone into providing spacious public areas, for social distancing, by closing off roads between 11am and 5pm.

“We’ve got to give people a reason to come in, to feel they can come down and have a really nice experience with a great atmosphere around,” he said.

To create the new public spaces, Sidmouth Town Council had to apply to Devon County Council Highways for a temporary traffic order, obtain signage, buy bollards, and arrange for the barriers to be put in place every day at 11am…

Sidmouth traders urged to use new pedestrianised areas | Sidmouth Herald

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photo: Sidmouth High Street with bunting and… © David Smith :: Geograph Britain and Ireland