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1 month agoIt’s a good explanation and would be logical if the council were acting in good faith, however the primary driver here is to reduce the number of people who are able to patronise these pubs and thus put them out of business.
A table and 4 chairs takes about the same space as a dozen people standing, and most of these pubs are on comparatively thin margins. Reduce the turnover by that much and they’re out of business. Which is what this residents group wants.
They’re pushing a lot of other restrictions not just the no standing, closing pubs at 10pm on weekends is clearly intended to make them less attractive to potential patrons for example
It works exactly the same way ambulance access to pedestrian malls and shared zones works.
They don’t drive through at 60mph lights and sirens and “get the hell out of my way” attitude.
This is the UK not the US.
They can drive quickly up to the restricted zone, then they’re progressing at 5 to 10mph with the passenger watching for inattentive pedestrians.
Before the howl of outrage this is short distances in a high density city. The difference in travel time by slowing down for the last mile is a minute or two. Time that could just as easily be lost by inattentive drivers not moving out of the way en route.