Businesses welcome latest move to create café culture in Kingsmead Square

October 30, 2020
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The installation of Bath’s first ‘parklets’ has given Kingsmead Square a facelift and helped create a European-style café culture with a traffic-free environment.

The two specially designed parklets – small areas the size of a couple of parking spaces with seating and plants – along with new cycle racks form part of Bath & North East Somerset Council works to improve the evening economy and create a cleaner, greener public space, rebalanced in favour of pedestrians and cyclists. 

The parklets on former car parking bays in the square have been manufactured by London-based industry leaders Meristem, which has supplied similar features in the capital and Liverpool.

Their installation follows extensive consultation with traders in and around Kingsmead Square and the extension of temporary vehicle access restrictions brought in as a response to Covid-19.

More parklets will be place in nearby Milsom Street next month, the council said.

As they do not need a permanent concrete base, they are a much faster and less expensive way for the city to bring improvements to a neighbourhood.

Council joint cabinet member for transport, Cllr Joanna Wright, said: “It has been a long-held ambition of residents and businesses in Kingsmead Square to reduce the dominance of vehicles and reclaim the roadway as public space and we’ve been working with the local community on the project for the past two years.

“The new parklets look great and fit well into the vibrant square where a socially distanced café culture is now blossoming in the traffic-free environment.

“So far the feedback we’ve received has been really positive and we’ll be consulting on a permanent vehicle access restriction for Kingsmead Square in the coming months.” 

Society Cafe director Jane Campbell-Howard added: “We are absolutely delighted with the incredible support we have received from the council. Not only have they pedestrianised the entire square, they have now installed these beautifully designed seating areas and bike parks. 

 “This was all underway pre-Covid and we thought it might all get delayed but the council team have swung into action and made it all happen. It’s brilliant!”

Vehicle access to Kingsmead Square is controlled by gates. Emergency services have access at all times. Outside the hours of 10am -10pm all vehicles are allowed as usual, enabling access to flats, shops and cafes for essential loading, servicing and refuse collection.

 Last year council officers visited round 100 to businesses to gauge their views ahead of drawing up plans to change the layout of the square. The council had originally suggested preventing vehicle access from 11am to midnight.

Pictured, from left: Foreground – Lindsay Holdoway, managing director of Kingsmead Square-based firm HPH, and Kingsmead ward Councillor Andy Furse. Rear – Councillor Joanna Wright, cabinet member for transport services, Kingsmead Ward Councillor Sue Craig, Society Café director Jane Campbell-Howard and design projects officer Wendy Maden

 

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