All parking spaces on the East Arm of the North beach car park will be suspended from Monday 21st September for 2 days to enable essential filming and testing to take place ahead of the transition to Phase 5c of the exit from lockdown. Removal of the spaces will allow a safe working area for the setting up and the dismantling of the infrastructure required.
The necessary building works required for the new COVID-19 testing centres at the ports and the East Arm are near completion which means that formal testing of the facilities and the filming of advisory information for passengers to support the testing programme can commence. The purpose of these films is to allow anyone using the testing facilities at the harbour or the airport to familiarise themselves with how to access the testing centres and take the necessary COVID-19 swabs on arrival ahead of their planned travel. As the films need to show the procedures in a live environment with port traffic etc, it is not possible to film this over a weekend or out of hours.
Programme Director for Phase 5C, Richard Evans said:
'It is acknowledged that the construction and subsequent use of this important testing facility will reduce the availability of long-stay public parking spaces in Town and cause some inconvenience for commuters. Accordingly, every effort is being made to ensure that the suspension of these spaces is for as short a time as possible. To mitigate some of the disruption for commuters following the temporary suspension of up to 190 10-hr spaces, two blocks of 3-hr parking at North Beach will be rezoned as 10-hr parking for these two days - circa 80 spaces. Commuters will also have access to the existing 40 spaces at Havelet that have remained as 10-hour parking throughout the (non) cruise liner season or could take the opportunity to car share or make use of public transport on these dates."
Similar arrangements will be put in place on future occasions when the testing facilities are in use on the East Arm along with some additional initiatives that will be aimed at reducing pressure on long-term parking in Town.