A COUNCILLOR has questioned if ‘now is the right time’ to remove temporary social distancing measures as Covid cases rise.

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead is planning to remove temporary social distancing measures, which were implemented across town centres at the end of the first lockdown in Spring 2020, as it was deemed “no longer required”.

This is because town centre activity has returned more or less to pre-pandemic levels and lockdown restrictions have eased.

In Maidenhead, barriers were put in place to widen the pavements on Queen Street, Broadway, and York Road.

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Speaking at a Maidenhead town forum on Thursday, March 17, Cllr Gurch Singh (Lib Dem: St Mary’s) questioned if it was “the right time” to remove these measures as Covid cases and hospital admissions are soaring due to a highly transmissible sub-variant of Omicron, known as BA.2.

He said: “I don’t like them as much as anyone else. I do think they are a mess, but I don’t think this is the right time this week when the hospitals have been overwhelmed, NHS staff are exhausted at the moment with people coming in with Covid, and to remove them and tighten the footpath again, I think just be cautious, and that’s the only thing I’m requesting.”

The lead member for planning, parking, highways, and transport, Cllr Phil Haseler (Con: Cox Green) reiterated his stance that the bollards “serve no purpose” as it has been pushed against the curb and stacked up on the pavement on York Road.

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Cllr Haseler described it as a “complete and utter mess.”

He said: “The social distancing hasn’t been used for many months. As a ward councillor, you [Cllr Singh] will realise that those plastic bollards in Queen Street, outside the shops there have been pushed to the side, everybody parks on them, and they serve no purpose.

“Unless you can persuade me otherwise that they do serve a purpose, please speak up. But they do not serve any purpose because they are not out on the road where they were initially.”

He also dismissed Cllr Singh’s claims the storm gales moved the barriers out of place as they have been moved from their original positions for months as well as calling his NHS and Covid concerns “alarmist”.