Sheffield city centre businesses oppose pedestrianisation of their street
Elaine Bird of Bird Opticians and Paul Taylor, director of Taylor Taylor Barbers, voice opposition to pedestrianisation of Surrey Street in Sheffield city centre. Video by Local Democracy Reporter Julia Armstrong
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00So I'm at Bird's Opticians in Sheffield City Centre. Do you want to tell me
00:04what your concerns are about the pedestrianisation that's planned
00:11outside the shop, Elaine? I think there are two main concerns. One of them is the fact that they are
00:16gradually restricting more and more access to cars, which is, I understand that, but for
00:23disabled people, and that doesn't just mean old people, it means young people as well,
00:27for disabled people, the city centre is likely to become almost a no-go area. You can't
00:33necessarily hop on public transport, and if you do stop on Arundel Gate, it's a real hike north of the street, and if you're pushing someone in a wheelchair, it's a real stretch.
00:46But they're restricting the access, which is, I understand why they're doing some of it, but you do need to let people with needs get into the shop.
00:57You need to let people get into the city centre, access the banks, opticians, hairdressers, various other things, otherwise we should just end up with nothing but cafes, and eventually we'll reach peak hospitality, and business will just disappear.
01:12The council say they want to attract independent businesses and small business and local businesses to the Sheffield City Centre.
01:20They're giving £35,000 to people who will go into Chapel Walk, but they're not encouraging the local independent traders who are already on Surrey Street to stay, because they're making it more and more hard for us to do that.
01:37The other thing that I don't think they're for, particularly, is deliveries, and yes you can deliver before 10am in the morning, but people going to the Crucible Matinee will not want to be getting out of a coach at 10am in the morning.
01:52And all of those vehicles, the large vehicles, delivery vehicles, coaches, etc, they need to turn round to get back out of the city centre and go to where they're going.
02:04And you cannot do a three point turn with an articulated lorry in the middle of Norfolk Street. It just won't happen.
02:12So what are they going to do to allow all of those large vehicles to access the city centre and get out safely? They don't seem to have got that through at all.
02:25So I'm talking to Paul Taylor from Taylor Taylor Barbershop in the city centre. Paul, you've heard about the pedestrianisation plans for Norfolk Street outside your business. What's your feeling about it?
02:39I don't think it's good at all. I think Surrey Street is unique. I think it's a premium street full of self-traders. A lot of our customers who visit this area for the theatres and everything need to park their cars.
02:55Unfortunately for pedestrianising, to me, there are a lot of people coming into the city. Unfortunately the council have not come up with any suitable alternatives. There's no parking rights. There's not enough on-street parking.
03:15All these people will go elsewhere, never mind the cost of what it's going to cost and the inconvenience for people. What annoys me is that it's this constant building work. We've had four years of it now and there could be another three years left.
03:35The council, in my opinion, need to have a rethink of the situation and make the street what it should be, what it could be, what it used to be. They're spending so much money, Fargate needs complementing with parking. Then we will then draw retailers back.
03:58In my opinion, you can build and build, but if people can't park, they won't come.