Councils are looking for ways to create more space for social distancing outside shops or when walking, such as by widening pavements, or ways to support people who are cycling especially while there’s limited public transport.

Sutton Council has just announced its first phase of temporary measures which should be in place using temporary materials by the end of May. Below, I’ve listed them with an outline of each scheme.

They’re short term, built with flexible, temporary materials so they can easily be changed or removed once people have seen them in action. If you have feedback on these schemes or suggestions for other schemes, please get in touch by emailing me.

The plans are below as described to me, the council haven’t yet released drawings.

Sutton Town Centre

1. Throwley Way - Benhill Road to Toucan Crossing opposite Lodge Place. Reduce traffic to one lane by widening pavement on the inside lane to create extra space for walking, running, cycling.

2. Throwley Way - pedestrian crossing south of Greyhound Road to Manor Park. As with plan one above, use barriers or cones to protect the inside traffic lane for walking, running, and cycling.

3. St Nicholas Way - from south of Hill Road (end of red route) to St Nicholas Road. As with 1 and 2, the inside traffic lane will be converted with barriers and cones to create walking, running, and cycling space.

Worcester Park

Central Road, railway bridge. Using barriers, reduce the road width under the railway bridge to create a lane in each direction for cycling.

Belmont

Moore Way / Homeland Drive to Overton Park. Widen the north footway with barriers to create more space for distancing when walking to and from the park.

Roundshaw

Mollison Drive near Roundshaw Park and Phoenix Centre. Widen the footway on the shop / Phoenix Centre side.

Wallington

1. Woodcote Road, high street area, loading bays outside KFC. Keep some loading bays while closing off others to create extra pavement width for people to queue safely for shops and walk past.

2. Sandy Lane South, outside Bandon Hill Primary. Widen pavement outside school to create extra space for pedestrians.

Hackbridge

London Road / Hackbridge Road outside Sainsbury’s. Close parking bays around corner and towards the school to widen the pavement.

These schemes are expected to appear by the end of May built with temporary barriers and cones. It’s a new idea which several councils are experimenting with, and because they’re made with temporary materials it will be easy to change or remove them when we see how they work in practice - please get in touch if have any thoughts or comments.