Diners tucking into fish and chips at a Cornwall harbour will be able to do so in safety after Securiscape installed a length of heritage-style HVM pedestrian guardrail to create an immovable barrier between them and a busy car park.
Installed in Looe Harbour, the fencing has taken pride of place outside the popular Kellys of Looe fish and chip shop and Copperfish Distillery, having been commissioned as part of landscaping work carried out in order to turn part of the car park into an outdoor dining area.
The work has been undertaken by Looe Harbour Commission to serve the thousands of tourists who flock to the town and its famous harbour every year by increasing the availability of outdoor dining – an important for reducing the spread of the coronavirus.
It took one day for Securiscape to install the 20m-worth of fencing, which equates to 11 two-metre and 1.2m powder-coated panels supplied in a heritage design and attached to 13 bollards.
Underneath its smart, decorative finish, the fencing is a high-tech safety product that in testing is strong enough to withstand the impact from a 2.5 tonne truck travelling at 30mph.
This is far beyond what it is likely to face at Looe, where the requirement is to prevent vehicles using the car park from inadvertently entering the outdoor seating area, thus providing what Securiscape managing director Mark Stone describes as a Vehicle Accident Mitigation (VAM) function.
Tina Hicks, Looe Harbour Master, said: “The fencing is perfect for what we were looking for, which was a safety feature that would protect the outdoor seating area whilst still looking nice and in keeping with the area.
“We are expecting an extremely busy summer this year and there is a huge demand for outdoor seating, which is why we have undertaken this project. Nobody would have felt safe if we’d not erected some form of safety barrier and we’re very pleased with how it looks.”
Introduced last year, Securiscape’s pedestrian guardrail has been installed at various locations across the UK, including outside the Experience Silverstone racing museum, a hotel at Birmingham’s NEC, a roadside in Sheffield and along the pavement outside a Jewish primary school.
It has also been used to protect diners enjoying their meals at Gabriel’s Wharf, a collection of shops and eateries on London’s South Bank.
Mr Stone said: “Whether it’s there for hostile vehicle mitigation or as vehicle accident mitigation, which is a new category, our guardrail is an ideal solution for creating a safe barrier without it looking out of place.
“Having visited the site in Looe we understand how it needed to blend in and naturally we’re delighted with the result. It means that tourists can enjoy eating their meals in the sunshine without worrying about the potential of being harmed by the comings and goings of cars just a few feet away.”
Since developing its original guardrail, Securiscape has developed two further versions, including a shallow-fit design that is capable of being installed on road bridges
