As previously reported, Harrow has secured London mayor funding to deliver more pedestrian space to help with government required social distancing. This includes pavements in some areas are to be temporarily widened by using barriers as confirmed by the deputy leader of Harrow Council, Cllr Keith Ferry.
The extra width of the temporary pavements will allow pedestrians to pass each other while social distancing since public safety is a priority during the coronavirus.
No doubt coronavirus preventive measures, like use of the barriers in some parking spaces to widen spaces for public movement, have implications for businesses,  but most are not selfish and support the measures.
Given the significance of the barriers in ensuring public welfare and safety, the Harrow opposition’s play that the barriers ‘will upset a lot of people’ looks unpleasant point-scoring, as it used to be under Cllr Hall’s confrontational leadership of the Tory group.
As the opposition leader Cllr Paul Osborn seems more worried about a ‘decrease in footfall at shops’ because of restricted parking and his deputy  Cllr Marilyn Ashton about the possibility of  ‘more businesses forced to close’, it looks they are towing their party’s practice ‘money before people’.
However, Cllr Ferry on the basis of a council survey,  has said that ‘widened pavements are likely to attract more customers’.