Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what guidance they have given to local authorities on the pedestrianisation of streets to facilitate greater space for restaurants and bars to trade while practicing appropriate social distancing.

The COVID-19 Secure: Urban Centres and Green Spaces guidance provides owners and operators with a framework to support social distancing in our town centres and parks. This was published on 13 May and subsequently updated on 26 June 2020. The guidance provides local authorities with practical advice in considering how greater space for restaurants and bars to trade can be provided while ensuring social distancing can be facilitated and maintained in urban centres. This includes advice on pedestrianisation of streets.

Traffic authorities already have powers to close roads for a variety of reasons, including pedestrianisation, through Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs). There is updated statutory guidance on the traffic management duty in response to COVID-19 on the gov.uk website (attached) at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reallocating-road-space-in-response-to-covid-19-statutory-guidance-for-local-authorities. This encourages authorities to make changes to their road layouts to give more space to cyclists and pedestrians.

The Department for Transport laid regulations on 22 May 2020 making it easier and quicker for traffic authorities to make TROs to deal with coronavirus.