Why are we doing this?

Has Covid-19 changed the way Rhyl thinks about transport?

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has had a massive impact in the way that we all think about many of the most basic things, including how we travel. During the early weeks of the first 'lockdown' (March/April 2020) the Welsh Government noted that many towns had an upsurge in people choosing to walk or cycle as their main means of transport, as well as an increase in air quality as large numbers of polluting vehicles were left at home. Welsh Government were keen to ensure that these positive changes were made sustainable for the longer term. In May 2020, Welsh Government put out a call for expressions of interest from local authorities to bid for funding to make short-term, temporary changes to town centres that would encourage people to travel more actively, and make social distancing measures easier to maintain. Denbighshire County Council prepared and submitted expressions of interest for proposed schemes in Rhyl, Denbigh, Llangollen and Ruthin

The proposal submitted for Rhyl was to install 'lane defenders' on parts of Bodfor Street, Queen Street, Wellington Road and West Parade. These measures would:

• Widen pavements in areas where they are narrow
• Support some pubs, cafes and restaurants in the town centre area to create outside seating areas for their customers
• Encourage and support commuters, residents and tourists to choose active travel (walking or cycling) as their main means of getting around town

Upon being awarded an agreement in principle for the funding, the Council launched consultations for each of the four proposed schemes - from 10th July to 26th July 2020. The consultation for Rhyl received 32 responses in total, with approximately 65% of respondents supporting the proposals. You can access the consultation and summary reports via the link below:

Finding a new normal for Rhyl Town Centre (opens in new tab)

What do we want to know?

The proposals for Rhyl were debated by the Member Area Group (MAG) for Rhyl, a group of County Councillors representing Rhyl and the surrounding areas. The Rhyl MAG recommended to the Lead Member for Waste, Transport and the Environment that a decision was made to proceed with the scheme, supported in part by the favourable community responses received.

Works to install the temporary scheme have now been completed and the Council is now entering the 'monitoring' phase of this trial project. We would very much welcome your feedback on this trial scheme, and to learn about your experiences of living in, working in or visiting Rhyl. Our intention is to launch new feedback surveys approximately every 8-10 weeks until the trial period draws to a close. Doing this will allow us to understand the impact the scheme has at different times of year, and will also allow us to report back to you regularly.

 Tell us what you think

We are interested in your experiences of accessing Rhyl town centre now the temporary scheme is in place. Everyone is welcome to leave feedback as often as they like, however we would be particularly interested to hear from people who took part in our previous consultation on this temporary scheme, back in July 2020. 

We'll be launching a new survey roughly every 8-10 weeks so please don't forget to sign up for updates at the end of the survey if you're interested in receiving notifications when the next survey goes live, or when we publish any reports/findings.

Location: Rhyl

• Start date 22 December 2020
• End date 30 January 2021
• Methods
• Supplier Denbighshire County Council

What we found out

What difference has it made?