St Albans: Councillors clash over pedestrianisation

In a trial, set to begin in April, the High Street in St Albans will be closed at weekends

Councillors have clashed over whether the pedestrianisation of roads through a cathedral city could affect the work of emergency services.

Last year, St Albans District Council agreed to this spring's trial, as long as emergency services were not impacted.

This week, it concluded "response times will be impacted" despite objections that the data was inconclusive.

Hertfordshire County Council will have the final say on the pedestrianisation.

The road closures in High Street and George Street, put in place due to Covid-19, were temporarily lifted in December until the trial could go ahead in April.

At the same time, the council heard emergency services feared permanent road closures could delay response times, and the council passed a motion that it would only allow the trial if emergency services were satisfied response times would not be affected.

In the trial, the High Street will only close at weekends, with two-way traffic on week days.

This week, the council's overview and scrutiny committee voted to pass a recommendation concluding that "response times will be impacted", the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The recommendation will now be sent to the policy committee for consideration.

The decision came after the East of England Ambulance Service acknowledged there could be an impact on response times by having to enter codes to open barriers to enter the roads.

But assistant general manager, Jonathan Perry, said he had not seen any data for 2020 and 2021 and was unable to say whether last year's road closures had led to longer response times.

"During the pandemic it was very difficult to say [if there was any impact] just because call volume was so variant, staff sickness was so changed, we had support from fire colleagues," he said.

"It's very difficult to pinpoint any particular changes or issues... because there were so many different elements to take into account."

Representatives from the police and fire service were unable to attend the meeting, but a previous letter from a district commander at the Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service from was referenced, which expressed concerns about "any installation of a barrier or gate".

Following the vote, Liberal Democrat councillor Chris Davies argued that there was not enough data to reach a definite conclusion.

"We need to model all the data, model how emergency services are going to be impacted - or not, as the case may be - and that will take the time it takes," he said.

Conservative councillor Annie Brewster said the committee would ask both the police and the fire service to clarify any concerns they had.