A quick announcement (sorry to interrupt your bank holiday) but this quite urgent.
From tomorrow construction will begin on a lateral flow testing site in Brockwell Park. It will be over by Wednesday and the site itself should be operative at the start of the new year. This is vital given the soaring numbers of cases in London and lateral flow testing has enabled the control of cases in Liverpool.
What the site will look like.
The site will be located on Redgra. It will have 1 marquee, 2 toilets for staff use only, 2 x silent running generators. It will be Harris fenced in. The testing will be done in a closed marquee and will have a minimal impact on the rest of the park and on other socially distanced activities going on in the park.
The Build Phase
The two day build schedule has been created to ensure that only one contractor / delivery is on site at any one time. As such there will be low volume of vehicles in the park on the day and we should not see any incidents of 2 way traffic where one vehicles has to drive on the grass.
Majority of the traffic will come in via Brockwell Lido Gate. We will have 2 traffic stewards on the gate who will manage the vehicle on and off the park at this location. All vehicles will be escorted to ensure safety for park users and that no damage is done.
Larger vehicles will come in via Herne Hill Gate. We will have two traffic stewards on this gate as well, who will manage the on and off. At Herne Hill gate trackway will be put on the grass area directly in front of the gate. The larger vehicles will come in, clear the gate and park on the trackway. Pedestrian barriers will be placed around this area to create a safe work area. A small forklift will unload and then be escorted along the paths to readgra area. This measure is in place for 2 deliveries only. Even with delays construction will have ceased by New Year's day.
Operation of the Site
There will be security both during the build phase and whilst the testing site is operational. We have asked the park and events team to look carefully at the conservation plan to ensure that there is a limited impact on the grass verges. Given the speed at which this has had to happen a full conservation report has not been possible so we will need to look at the site and conservation will report back on this.
At this point we are not sure of the operational hours, numbers expected to be tested across each day or the duration of time they wish to be on site. Nor do we know the wider servicing requirements. These will all be sorted early next week and we’ll come back to you with more details. Again I will report back to you as soon as possible with the details of its operation.