New safety measures introduced in Watford town centre

With 'non-essential' shops having been given the green light to open tomorrow, the town centre is gearing up to welcome people back with a range of new safety measures.

Several measures were introduced into the town centre a few weeks ago to help with social distancing, such as road closures at the lower end of High Street and signs telling people to stay two metres apart.

Signs have been put up in the town centre

But over the past few weeks, Watford Borough Council has been working with Hertfordshire County Council, Watford BID and intuWatford to introduce more measures to help keep people safe before shoppers return on June 15.

As part of the new safety measures, Watford BID has provided five hand sanitising units throughout the town centre for people to use. These will be automated, so people will not need to touch them.

A one-way system has also been introduced through High Street - people can do this by following green and pink stickers on the pavement.

Four stewards from the same company that Watford FC use will also be on hand to provide help to anyone who needs it, while people can also expect to see more police in the town from tomorrow.

The council is also looking to open toilets in the town centre, but says because of social distancing and the regular cleaning required that it would be "tricky".

However, it is looking at introducing toilets into the Subway in the parade at a later date. Toilets will be open in intuWatford, although limited people will only be allowed in at one time to help with social distancing.

Meanwhile, shops and businesses have all been offered support from the council’s Environmental Health team to make sure they are doing what is needed to keep their staff and customers safe.

If a business displays a 'confidence mark', it shows it has taken steps to follow the safety guidance in place during the pandemic.

Mayor of Watford Peter Taylor said: "We are keen to welcome people back to the town as we return to some sort of normality, but the town will feel and look different. People will need to be kind and considerable of others.”

“We want people to come to town but we want them to be able to do it safely.”

“I feel that we’ve done everything possible to keep people safe. We’ve worked closely with businesses and police to make sure all eventualities are covered.”

“The key message is that it won’t be the same as normal. It will feel and look different. Those measures are in place to protect everyone’s safety.”