Following the National Lockdown announced on 04 January 2021, we would like to remind you to follow the safety measures that businesses have in place to help you feel comfortable when you’re shopping for what you need. 

• Pavement and floor signage for social distancing
• Face coverings in shops
• Sanitiser stations
• More frequent cleaning
• Limiting numbers for social distancing
• Protective screens
• Encouraging contactless payments

And:

1. Go with the flow – keep your distance and follow all local signage
2. Be safe – plan ahead, be considerate, responsible and patient
3. Remember to wash your hands often. Use the free sanitiser stations, use contactless payment and put on a face covering when needed

Thank you for continuing to shop in your local high street. It’s important to give our essential independent shops the support they need during this difficult time.

26 September Update – all roads will be re-opened from 27 September 2020. Please continue to social distance in the Town Centre – Keep Right, use the pedestrianised lanes and the free hand sanitisers.

08 September Update – Phase 5

Following a review of the fourth phase of Newquay’s Re-opening Plan that came into place from 14 August in the Town Centre, the social distancing measures put in place to ensure the safety of residents and visitors to Newquay have now been reduced.

Newquay Town Council has been regularly meeting with representatives from Highways, Cornwall Council, Newquay BID, Devon & Cornwall Police and Safer Cornwall to discuss the emerging issues that have been reported, including observations from marshals, Councillors, and local residents.

The following measures have now been agreed:

Footfall has reduced since the August Bank Holiday, which allows Newquay Town Council and its partners to reduce the measures back to Phase 1 levels. This includes:

1. A ‘Keep Right’ policy for pedestrian flows.
2. During the key trading hours between 11am and 4pm, part of Bank Street is closed to vehicles. 
3. Gover Lane has now been reopened and Hoopers Lane will be reopened over the next week or so.
4. Clearly defined pedestrian lanes to enable effective distancing for all.
5. Free to use Hand Sanitiser stations will be positioned on or near existing Public Conveniences and Council Offices
6. Partners are also working on the Land Train reverting back to its normal route with the Pickup and Drop Off point on Bank Street from Friday 18 September, subject to confirmation of permissions and the continued reduction in footfall.

Newquay Town Council and partners are hoping to keep the reduced measures in place until 27 September 2020. They continue to monitor and review the measures proactively to ensure the Town is as safe and welcoming to visitors, residents and in-deed shoppers as possible, supporting our important businesses and wider high-street.

Please do not hesitate to contact the Town Council and its partners at the following dedicated email address: roadclosure@newquaycouncil.co.uk if you have any questions about the plan or if you have any ideas or suggestions to put forward. Thank you for following the guidance and helping to keep everyone safe.

14 August Update – Phase 4

Following a review of the third phase of Newquay’s Re-opening Plan that came into place from 10 July in the Town Centre, further social distancing measures are now being put in place to ensure the safety of residents and visitors to Newquay as of Friday 14 August.

Newquay Town Council met with representatives from Highways, Cornwall Council, Newquay BID, Devon & Cornwall Police and Safer Cornwall this week to discuss the emerging issues that have been reported, including observations from marshals, Councillors, and local residents.

The following additional measures have now been agreed to resolve these issues:

• ALL road closures will be extended to 10am – 7pm 7 days a week, following increased footfall in the Town Centre which has led to numerous observed near misses with vehicles and a growing risk that needed to be addressed. These closures will provide marshals with the ability to react to spikes in footfall as and when they arise.

The official road closure will allow the team to close the road at any point between 7am and 10pm, but to be clear, there is no intention at this stage to extend beyond the 10am -7pm times. If public safety is put at risk, then a decision may be taken to extend the closure hours, but we will communicate this as soon as possible, with as much notice as possible with the businesses through Newquay BID and local media.

• Hoopers Lane will be closed as part of the existing Bank Street road closures from 7am – 10pm. Access to the businesses on this road will be permissible but existing restrictions apply. This is following numerous vehicles driving down the lane and on to Bank Street during the closure.
• There will be a “No Waiting at Any Time” (NWAAT) restriction for the whole of Bank Street. This is following on-going requests for vehicles not to park in Bank Street during the closure period and the lack of adherence to this request by a small minority. This will be effective from the Gover Lane junction through to the junction of the Crescent 24/7. However, it will only be enforced between the hours of 9am – 6pm daily. We would urge residents and visitors to still adhere to the restriction outside of the enforcement hours. Whilst in normal circumstances, Newquay Town Council and its partners would have implemented the restrictions in-line with the ‘official’ road closure times (7am – 10pm), we recognise the impact this is likely to have across the wider high street and so the restrictions have been limited and are purely to support the Phase 4 real closure times. This will not affect businesses receiving their deliveries when the road is OPEN, as they will still be able to load on an NWAAT restriction.
• The Gover Lane road closure measures are still being maintained and are acting as our designated delivery and blue badge parking. However, we will now trial access for those wishing to collect food from Morris Pasties or Loafers in addition to being the designated delivery van and blue badge parking (subject to availability). The trial will hopefully help support businesses dramatically affected by the closure in this area and lack of pedestrian footfall from the high street. This change will be kept under review and anyone abusing the requirements will risk a fine and removal of the new access to all.
• An increase of marshals is also being implemented. They will be undertaking more sweeps to identify A-Boards and other obstructions that are creating issues for safe social distancing.

The following measures are still in place from the previous phases of the plan:

• Keep Right whilst walking through the Town Centre
• Most of Bank Street is closed for vehicles through to the Island Crescent junction (Emergency and residential access is facilitated) with a diversion in place from Central through to Island Crescent.
• The Gover Lane closure measures are still being maintained and are acting as our designated delivery and blue badge parking. Existing parking restrictions apply, but Blue Badge holders and delivery vans can go through the closure along that lane.
• There are hand sanitisers located on and in all Town Council operated public toilets.
• All toilets are now open with summer opening hours
• Marshals continue to patrol the town to help with the social distancing messaging and to keep everyone safe.

Newquay Town Council and its partners continue to monitor and review the measures proactively to ensure the Town is as safe and welcoming to visitors, residents and in-deed shoppers as possible, supporting our important businesses and wider high-street.

The above measures remain temporary during this period.

Please do not hesitate to contact the Town Council and its partners at the following dedicated email address: roadclosure@newquaycouncil.co.uk if you have any questions about the plan or if you have any ideas or suggestions to put forward. Thank you for following the guidance and helping to keep everyone safe.

10 July Update – Phase 3

Following a review of the second phase of Newquay’s Re-opening Plan that came into place from 03 July in the Town Centre, further social distancing measures are now being put in place to ensure the safety of residents and visitors to Newquay as of Friday 10 July.

Newquay Town Council met with representatives from Highways, Cornwall Council, Newquay BID, Devon & Cornwall Police and Safer Cornwall this week to discuss the emerging issues that have been reported, including observations from marshals, Councillors, and local residents.

The following additional measures have now been agreed to resolve these issues:

• Gover Lane will be closed to all vehicular traffic apart from blue badge holders and delivery vans. The closure will be at the same times as the current Bank Street closure (11am-4pm). Marshalls will manage access and the closure will be set back slightly to allow residential access through to Beachfield Avenue.
• The existing closures will remain during 11am-4pm, but we have the ability to implement the closure early or later than these times should footfall demand.
• Information about these measures will be given/posted to the businesses/properties along Gover Lane for information.

A great deal of feedback has been received regarding delivery access and disabled parking and so these measures aim to address this.

The following measures are still in place from the previous phases of the plan:

• Keep Right whilst walking through the Town Centre
• Most of Bank Street is closed for vehicles between the hours of 11am-4pm with the option to close one hour earlier or later if footfall demands. The road closure has been extended for Bank Street through to the Island Crescent junction (Emergency and residential access will be facilitated) with a diversion in place from Central through to Island Crescent.
• There are hand sanitisers located on public toilets.
• Accessible toilets have been re-opened, these are for anyone to use and not just for people with accessibility issues. We will continue to work on re-opening full facilities as soon as we meet the covid secure requirements. Our phase 2 of opening toilets is likely to take place over the next few days, where more of the ladies/gents facilities will be reopened to support the already open accessible facilities.
• There will be marshals around town to help with the social distancing messaging and to keep everyone safe.

These measures remain under constant review. This is a rapidly changing situation to react to footfall growth and issues as they arise. The Town Council and partners have not had enough time to forewarn individual affected properties of these changes, which hopefully everyone recognises as reasonable. We apologise for the lack of notice, but public safety is our number one priority. We continue to do everything we can to support our important businesses, residents and visitors.

Please do not hesitate to contact the Town Council at office@newquay.town if you have any questions about the plan or if you have any ideas or suggestions to put forward. If you have any suggestions about the road closures please email: roadclosure@newquaycouncil.co.uk.

Thank you for working hard to ensure Newquay remains a safe place to work, live or visit – we cannot do this without everyone working together.

03 July Update – Phase 2

Town and parish Councils along with local BIDs were asked by the Government at the beginning of June to lead on developing local temporary arrangements within high streets to help manage social distancing as businesses began to re-open on 15 June 2020. Following the Governments recent announcement that pubs, restaurants, and holiday accommodation are able to re-open on 04 July, Newquay will be putting further measures in place to prepare for an influx of visitors to Newquay.

Newquay Town Council have formed a partnership with Newquay BID, Cornwall Council, Cormac, the Police and others to develop a short-term plan to adhere to the Government requirements and try and prepare the Town for the 04 July re-openings.

On 08 June 2020 Newquay adopted a “keep right” system which was implemented throughout the Town Centre. Signage asks all residents and visitors to try to keep to the right-hand side of the road. Newquay Town Council would like to remind residents and visitors to please continue to observe these social distancing measures in Newquay’s Town Centre, whilst bearing in mind the below further measures.

The following further measures will be implemented from Saturday 04 July:

• Most of Bank Street will be closed for vehicles between the hours of 11am-4pm with the option to close one hour earlier or later if footfall demands. The road closure has been extended for Bank Street through to Island Crescent junction (Emergency and residential access will be facilitated) with a diversion in place from Central through to Island Crescent.
• There are hand sanitisers located on public toilets.
• Accessible toilets have been re-opened, these are for anyone to use and not just for people with accessibility issues. We will continue to work on re-opening full facilities as soon as we meet the covid secure requirements.
• There will be marshals around town to help with the social distancing messaging and to keep everyone safe.

08 June – Phase 1

Town and parish councils along with local BIDs have been asked by the Government to lead on developing local temporary arrangements within high streets to help manage social distancing before businesses are due to re-open on 15 June.

Following a meeting with Newquay BID on Monday 08 June, Newquay Town Council have developed a draft short-term plan to adhere to the Government requirements and try and prepare the Town for the 15 June 2020 businesses re-opening. This is with the assistance of Cornwall Council and Cormac who will undertake any temporary road closures and/or traffic regulation orders and are seeking government funding to support local schemes.

Newquay Town Council also sought ideas and issues to be aware of for the plan from those individuals who have already expressed an interest in sitting on the Regeneration Working Party, which is currently being formed by Newquay Town Council to aid the economic recovery of Newquay since the pandemic. As these individuals came forwards to help with Newquay’s regeneration, the Town Council asked to hear their thoughts on how it can better prepare the town for its re-opening.

The aims of the plan are to ensure the town is safely and conveniently accessible for customers, workers, visitors and residents, and to make provision to support pedestrians in going about their transactions safely distanced, and able to queue appropriately. This will be supported primarily through signage, with plans to implement lane demarcation and advisory marshals if needed.

The 4 key principles that have been established in the plan include:

1. A ‘Keep Right’ policy for pedestrian flows.
2. During the key trading hours between 11am and 4pm, part of Bank Street will be closed to vehicles. 
3. Clearly defined pedestrian lanes to enable effective distancing for all.
4. Free to use Hand Sanitiser stations will be positioned on or near existing Public Conveniences and Council Offices

Newquay Town Council and Newquay BID are looking at establishing these temporary measures in the Town Centre, near to beaches, key facilities, and any areas where there are likely to be challenges with queuing/social distancing. They will promote the scheme’s principles and will work with Cornwall Council and Cormac to keep the system under constant review.

As part of creating a safe town centre environment, businesses are also politely asked to remove any A-boards or unnecessary clutter from outside of their premises in the short term to create an open environment with as much open space so that customers can adhere to-social distancing guidelines effectively, businesses can provide adequate queuing facilities and pedestrians do not compromise their safety by being forced onto the highways to navigate the pavements. This in turn, supports and ensures the town in a successful, phased re-opening over coming weeks.