New social distancing barriers that resemble 'fairground race track' to be removed in Milton Keynes town this week

Earlier this month the council put up a sea of orange and white plastic barriers and bollards in Stony Stratford's scenic high Street, in a bid to allow shoppers to keep the regulation distance apart.

The path widening and road narrowing scheme was slammed as unsightly by many people - and it also meant a number of parking spaces, including two disabled bays, were lost.

City Alderman and Stony parish councillor Paul Bartlett told the Citizen last week: "It looks like a fairground racing track or a set of motorway roadworks ... All this to enable a few shoppers help in keeping a social distance of one metre whilst buying a loaf of bread or a packet of bacon."

He added: "Like so many other towns, Stony Stratford has lost businesses and jobs due to Covid 19. As a town, we literally cannot afford interfering busybodies from outside Stony to inflict more pain.

Now MK Council has issued a statement to the Citizen saying the barriers and bollards will be removed early this week.

It comes six weeks after the council launched a similar scheme that resulted in Newport Pagnell High Street being closed to traffic to allow pavements to be widened. This was scrapped days later following complaints that shops were losing trade.

An MK Council spokesman said today: “Our Highways team has been working closely with Stony Stratford Town Council and the local business association to put plans together for the High Street so that shoppers can socially distancing when they visit and businesses can function as normally as possible, as we have with the other local high streets across MK."

He added: "Our priority is to keep people safe whilst also assisting local businesses to reopen.”“The Council had received two written complaints about queues and congested pavements on the High Street, particularly outside the butchers and bakers premises so along with representatives of the Town Council, the local business association and two businesses from Stony Stratford we monitored the situation here.

"The queues outside some shops left no option for pedestrians and shoppers to social distance unless they walked in the road. For public safety, it was agreed that the red and white temporary barriers would be placed along the High Street and reviewed after a week.”

The spokesman said the review had now taken place and as a result of feedback received from businesses and local councilors council workers would be removing the barriers from early this week.

He said: “Alternative measures are being looked at however we are limited in what we can do here as the road isn’t wide enough to accommodate parking bays and widen the footpath without closing the road. We’ve already added a dedicated disabled parking bay area close by and have temporarily removed the five parking bays on the High Street to provide more room.”

“Following the review, the Town Council have agreed to put a semi-permanent arrangement in place here instead once the temporary red and white barriers are removed. This is being planned now and is expected to be implemented within the next couple of weeks. The new measures will replace the need for any temporary barriers and any materials used will be in-keeping with the historical look and feel of Stony Stratford High Street.”

But the U-turn has come too late for one Stony picture framing business Picture Perfect.

Owner Neil Duguid said he was the first "casualty" of the loss of trade and had to lay off a member of staff last week.

"After three and a half months of no business, I had hoped to keep the job open and ride the storm, but this damage is just too much to take without drastic measures," he said.

Neil added: "All the businesses in the south end seem to be a consistent 30 to 50 per cent down down, which is totally untenable...We have already had confirmation that shoppers have regrettably chosen to shop in another town.