Businesses on Friargate talk of difficulties faced by roadworks
Businesses on Friargate talk of difficulties faced by roadworks after update as Preston City Council tease end of long running road closure.
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00:00 Well to be quite honest, it's the ab drag defeat, but it's coming to now.
00:12 It will be for the better, it's got to be for the better and we've got to accept that.
00:17 It has took a long time, of course it has, but there's been problems.
00:20 Problems with people doing it, underneath, what's going on underneath the ground we don't
00:25 know but at least it's coming to now and that's the main thing.
00:29 But it's affected every business on the street, every business on the street.
00:32 And how has it affected your business?
00:33 Massive, walking trade, you just need to take a picture of it, how many people are walking
00:37 past?
00:38 Nobody's walking past, no one's using the road.
00:42 So we've just got to go from there, stick together, really and make a go of it.
00:49 Now we can see what's going down, every day one brick less to put down so we can see progression.
00:55 Before we couldn't, we didn't know where we were, when it was going to open, nobody had
00:59 a clue.
01:00 Of course they said next year to start with, but it should have been done by obviously
01:05 this year, beginning of this year.
01:06 And how hopeful are you that it's going to be back open by?
01:09 Hopefully, if it's open by Christmas, all up and done by Christmas, I'll be a very happy
01:14 man.
01:15 It's been really difficult, so we've felt like a massive decline of trade since May
01:22 last year when it first started.
01:24 Not only the street just being closed, but the surrounding areas, how it's affected people's
01:30 accessibility in and out of town and just in the area.
01:35 Not knowing what roads may be open or closed just makes a heightened stress on people's
01:39 commute in and out of city centres.
01:41 So that's a lot of feedback we've got from customers that we'd normally see on a regular
01:47 basis.
01:49 We did find the first part of the project really stressful because it was primarily
01:55 Lancashire County Council's part of the project.
01:58 It was really a stop and start and we didn't really see that much progress throughout the
02:05 development of the road.
02:07 However though, the privatised company they've got on at the moment, they're laying the flags
02:11 and doing a much faster job.
02:14 So it's starting to feel a bit more exciting, we can see what the street's going to look
02:19 like.
02:20 We've been told that the new end date, obviously it was originally March we got told in 2021,
02:29 and obviously we got told to cast a dip in revenue until March 2023, and then that got
02:38 extended till October.
02:41 So obviously we're still fingers crossed that it will be completed mid-October because
02:45 we've missed out on what we thought we'd have an amazing summer trade, and maybe we can
02:51 catch back a bit of Christmas trade now, so that'd be nice.
02:56 And how hopeful are you that the scheme will bring back the customers that you had previously?
03:02 I really hope that, to be honest I really hope it will bring people back anyway, just
03:08 to come and see how the area's been regenerated.
03:12 Obviously September, end of September we're going to be getting a lot of students starting
03:15 university, so it'll be lovely to see all the students returning, and new students as
03:20 well.
03:21 And the street obviously was fine prior to having the redevelopment, it's just that I
03:28 think this one's going to be a lot more easier to navigate, so I'm hoping to be able to see
03:35 more older customers, older people, feeling a bit more confident about walking around
03:40 in the space, and people with visual disabilities hopefully will feel a little bit more safer
03:46 to be coming in and out of the city centre now.
03:49 So hopefully keeping a wide range of customers and people in mind, they'll find it a little
03:57 bit more easier to navigate around Preston and feel a bit more safer.
04:03 And how hopeful are you that the scheme will come to an end in mid-October like you've
04:06 been told?
04:07 To be honest, from working with Lancashire, well being a part of communicating with Lancashire
04:14 County Council, only in the last eight weeks have they actually started including us in
04:20 timeframes, what situations they're in, what difficulties they're facing, so I'm hoping
04:28 that they will give us some sort of advance warning if it's not going to hit the deadline
04:35 that they are portraying as going to be the correct one, rather than last time just letting
04:41 it run on and nobody had any idea what was happening.
04:44 So I'm hoping obviously they'll keep us somewhat in the loop.
04:47 They have told us that yes, the footfall area will be completed by mid-October, but things
04:54 like benches, bins, maybe trees, might not be fully fitted until March next year.
05:00 Thank you.