News on East Renfrewshire Spaces for People

Happy New Year to all East Renfrewshire Spaces for People subscribers

The development and rollout of the various COVID vaccines is the best possible news to herald in the New Year. Although the end is now in sight, restrictions have to continue until the virus is under control. It is important you continue to adhere to the rules , stay local and keep yourself and others safe. Where possible you should consider walking, wheeling or cycling, if you can, to reduce pressure on the road network and on public transport where capacity will be limited.

Spaces for People Update

The main news update is the ongoing development of the initial phase of the A77 Ayr Road and Fenwick Road South ‘Bike & Roll’ corridor. Although works were originally scheduled to be complete late December, bad weather (first lots of rain, then a cold snap) has delayed efforts. We would be keen to continue to gather your views as this will ultimately help shape measures in the week and months ahead.

For further information regarding the status of A77 road corridor plans you can find out more information contained within our A77 Briefing Note November 2020 originally issued to local stakeholders.

Giffnock Town Centre

We are aware of discussion in the community regarding the removal of all on street car parking and the reallocation of road space within Giffnock Town Centre. There are no proposals in the pipeline to do this, however upon reviewing the engagement material on our Commonplace site we note that the indicative June 2020 draft plans for Fenwick Road included Giffnock Town Centre. This document was added to the site in error and represented initial potential considerations which will not be taken forward. The document will be replaced and we apologise for any confusion.

For background, the June 2020 plans were developed alongside a series of emergency proposals for key areas across East Renfrewshire following the first ‘lockdown’. Physical distancing was, and remains, one of the main tools available to reduce virus transmission and a key element of East Renfrewshire’s Transport Response to COVID . Early on however it was recognised that series of challenges and uncertainties meant that progressing a programme of significant road space reallocation in Giffnock and elsewhere was not feasible, proportional nor necessarily welcome during a time of business uncertainty.

Since July 2020 ERC have instead promoted a ‘ Safe streets healthy businesses ’ approach to help facilitate safe trading during COVID. This included provisions to empower businesses to encourage creative ways to reimagine public space to support safe trading and enable distancing within the public realm.

The rationale for this decision was the emergence of evidence indicating relative risk levels to COVID exposure. With appropriate controls and observing safety guidelines, being outdoors and shopping are generally classed as low risk activities with higher risk activities, such congregating within an busy indoor environment like a restaurant or coffee shop, requiring greater levels of control to minimise contagion. Along the main thoroughfare of Giffnock Town Centre footway widths are generally sufficient to enable distancing between people, however, an increase in congestion or an increase in outdoor trading may be problematic. We believe therefore that the approach adopted provides both flexibility and support to enable businesses to seek solutions that works best for their particular circumstances.

Please note, the council and partners continue to offer support and advice on how to stay safe during COVID and are committed to support local businesses during a very challenging time.

Looking to the future

Over the coming months we will continue to investigate opportunities for temporary measures along the A77 road corridor through Newton Mearns and Giffnock into Glasgow. This includes opportunities for temporary bus and cycle priority measures and traffic signal optimisation. More information on this can be found within our Bus Priority Rapid Development Fund Briefing Note December 2020 . We recognise however that areas such Town Centres - with a range of competing demands on finite road space – any proposals, even temporary, require further assessment, analysis and engagement and this is what we intend to do.

Over the coming months we will continue to assess the feasibility of delivering further Spaces for People and other proposals across East Renfrewshire. These include, amongst other priorities, the viability of further pop up Bike & Roll Corridors, how best to facilitate a functional and inclusive active travel network, ‘school street’ trials and further incentives to encourage residents to shop locally.

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Although there is an immediate need to limit virus transmission to save lives, we also need to look into the future and how best to support a sustainable transition and recovery from COVID. As part of this we want to make it easier and safer for people to move around by supporting a choice of local journey options. As well as improving accessibility to and from key destinations, this is essential in terms of sustainable management of the road network, safeguarding public health, protecting the environment and supporting the revitalisation of local town and neighbourhood centres hit hard by COVID. Many of us have already changed our transport habits by walking, cycling and wheeling more for exercise and/or essential journeys. How we move around more sustainably will be a pressing question over the next decade. Decisions taken now and the key lessons learnt will ultimately help inform what future and more permanent measures might look like into the future.