Derbyshire company help councils manage social distancing in public spaces

Added by Love Business East Midlands | 23 June 2020

UPDATED: 23 June 2020

A Derbyshire company is helping local authorities across the UK to maintain social distancing in areas of high footfall using floral barriers.

Instead of using traditional methods such as railings or chain link fencing to funnel and separate pedestrians in public spaces, organisations are planting up banks of containers as an aesthetically attractive alternative.

The self-watering floor standing planters are manufactured by Alfreton based company Amberol and are being used by councils to create floral barriers in town centres and public places. 

Amberol’s MD Patience Atkinson-Gregory explains that they have been supporting new and current customers in utilising products such as square, promenade and parade planters to create walkways in pedestrian areas. The containers can also be used to block off streets that are closed to traffic in order to free up pedestrian space in areas of high footfall.

“Councils have recognised that there is an opportunity here to be quite creative by using floral planters,” Patience comments. “Some of the planters that we manufacture are an ideal size to act as fencing and can be used in a range of scenarios from making one-way areas for pedestrian traffic, to blocking roads to vehicular traffic.”

In normal times, Amberol’s planters are more commonly used by councils across the UK to help create large scale floral displays on high streets and other public places. They are all self-watering, which also reduces maintenance requirements as planters need watering just once or twice a week. 

The planters being used vary in lengths and height from metre squared containers to interlocking ‘parade’ planters which can be joined together in straight lines or at right angles to create barriers that are 0.7m high.  

“I think many of us find social distancing one of the hardest aspects of the regulations around Covid-19,” Patience adds. “The need to enforce distancing measures are likely to have a significant impact on what our communal areas look like. Using floral barriers can soften the effect as well as cheering us all up with a little bit of beauty.”   

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