UPDATED: Wembley Pavement Widening Mystery

Only days after barriers were erected to widen pavements in Wembley High Road they have been pushed back creating a barrier to pedstrians rather than helping them. The point of pavement widening was so that pedestrians could socially distance in a very crowded area.

Cyclists and pedestrians took to Twitter calling for an explanation and prosecution of any organisation or individual who had taken the law into their own hands.

UPDATE

Brent Council has responded to one of thse complained via Twitter:

We've passed this onto the relevant team who are going to send someone out today to move the barriers back to their correct locations and see if there's anything more we can do to prevent this happening again.

Brent Council will widen pavements on Wembley High Road on Thursday

Brent Council is to widen the pavement on either side of Wembley High Road on Thursday 21st May to aid social distancing in this very busy area.

The widening will be accomplished by barriers (see above) and will be outsde McDonalds at 483 High Road for 30 metres and beside the bus stop adjacent to Primark at 453 High Road for 60 metres.

Brent Council said:

We have seen that streets are becoming busier, and so it is important that these additional safety measures are put in place as soon as possible to help people observe social distancing.

We are therefore planning to widen the pavement using pedestrian barriers and install signage to encourage people to keep their distance. The images below are an example of the measures that will be provided. 

Where there are bus stops, gaps in the barriers will be provided to allow passengers access. For longer sections we will also provide gaps for access for servicing such as collecting refuse.

Along with these measures, businesses must to do everything they can to support social distancing, including limiting the number of customers on their premises and managing queues outside.

Longer-term measures to promote walking and cycling 

In the long term, we want to make it easier and safer for people to walk and cycle locally, shop on their local high street, reach local amenities such as green spaces, schools and doctors, all while maintaining physical distancing. 

We are looking at ways of doing this in Brent and will be setting out our further plans for encouraging green, active travel shortly.