A petition has been launched to save a small bit of free parking that is very beneficial for shoppers and traders alike. The council plan to put a cycle lane where they are. The MD of Plumbit who celebrate 40 years trading this year in that location has organised the petition and say the short length of cycle lane just isn't needed, especially if its at the cost of the parking.
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00:00So we're here at Plumbridge in Stafford and Andy, this is your base, your shop?
00:04It is indeed, yeah, for 40 years.
00:06Cool, and not too happy at the minute, you've got, you know, some of the stock you have here,
00:11it's not the lightest and people need to kind of pull up and get it in the boot.
00:14That's correct, yeah.
00:15Being an out sort of thing. You've got a few parkings, how many parking spaces you got out front?
00:19There's about 10 out there, but it's not just for me, it's a lot of people that use the town all the time.
00:25Basically there's elderly people, disabled people, people dropping things off.
00:29People just going for a coffee, it's the sort of lifeline of the town really, for this end of the town.
00:34Yeah, well I've just spoke to some traders from the local food shop, the gym, the hairdressers,
00:38the cafe, and they've all said these spaces are very useful to them.
00:41But these spaces are under threat I believe, just fill us in on what the council want to do.
00:45Well basically they want to remove the parking spaces and produce a cycle lane,
00:50which I haven't got a problem with cyclists, I'm a cyclist myself.
00:53It's just really that hardly anybody use these cycle lanes and that's,
00:57everybody in the town knows that, and sort of you're going to deprive this area of the town
01:02from parking spots, which lots of people use. It's not just me as I say, it's all sorts of people.
01:08Come and go, we've actually calculated there's about 1,200 uses of this parking spots in one week.
01:14Wow.
01:15So that's 1,200 spots, because it's 30 minutes free parking,
01:19it's the only free parking that we've got in this area.
01:22Basically when all the big car parks were taken away from us this end of the town,
01:26this end of the town did suffer.
01:28So by taking these will just make it 10 times worse.
01:31Yeah, and do you think access down this road for a cyclist at the minute,
01:36without the cycle lane is a problem?
01:38Not really at all, it's a one-way road.
01:41While we've been standing here in the last sort of 30 minutes,
01:44there's not been one cyclist going past.
01:45Yeah.
01:46So you know, to be fair, I don't see it's a problem.
01:50There's nothing wrong with what we've got here now, so if it's not broke, why fix it?
01:54I'm sure there's better things they could spend £6 million on.
01:58Well, is that what they're saying, £6 million?
02:00£6 million is the budget, yeah.
02:02Well, I mean, when you're looking at where it's coming from,
02:04that red bit of path just over the way there,
02:06they're going to be chopping off some of the flowerbed, I believe.
02:08That's correct, yeah.
02:10So that's an extra expense and a loss of part of the beautiful flowerbed.
02:14It is, well, to be fair actually, I know a lot of people criticise this end of the town
02:19for looking dowdy and things like that, where it's a beautiful flowerbed,
02:24that people comment on.
02:25So why take it away?
02:26Exactly the same reason.
02:27Why take away what's here?
02:29It's not broke, why fix it?
02:30Yeah.
02:30And you've started a petition.
02:32You've got both a paper one in store and an online one, yeah?
02:34Yeah, we've got about 70 signatures here now and we've got an online one
02:40and you can go on the council website and basically fill that in.
02:47There's a code there, you can go and put your feelings there.
02:52And the general feeling is that people don't want to lose this area
02:57because it's the lifeline of this top of the town.
03:01Hello sir, what's your name?
03:02I'm Samir.
03:03And Samir, we've just been telling you about the plans that
03:07might result in these parking spaces going.
03:09You're making use of it today.
03:12Very useful for you, these being here?
03:13Yes, yes, this parking spot is quite useful for us because, you know,
03:18myself and my colleagues, they use this parking spot for quick access to town centre.
03:23Yeah.
03:23They bring their car here, we go to banking, we pop into the shops for quick shopping and all.
03:27So if it's gone, maybe we'll have to find another space which would be a headache.
03:31Yeah, very true.
03:33I mean, looking at it, there's plenty of space you would think where they could
03:37have a cycle lane and parking.
03:40Do you think having a cycle lane here is going to bring a rush of people into the town?
03:45Is it, you know, which is better?
03:47The parking that's being used or a cycle lane?
03:49Parking, like you see here, at least five to six, six to seven cars can park here at a time.
03:54Yeah.
03:55And moreover, it's a short parking, which means more cars are using it frequently, a day.
04:00So I think it's well fit for a car park.
04:04Do you feel that traders, you know, at the end of the day, it's all about traders.
04:10You're the corner life and soul of the town.
04:12Yeah.
04:12Do you feel that you're consulted about these decisions and your views listened to or take it not?
04:19Well, I did ask for a response 10 days ago by email to the Council and up to now I've had no response.
04:28The letter was, there's no contact telephone number on the letter,
04:32there's no contact email address on the letter
04:37and a big thing like this for us and this end of the town was sent by the apprentice engineer.
04:43And really and truly, you know, we should have been consulted,
04:47so somebody should have come round and talked to us.
04:50And, you know, after I've sort of asked for some information, nothing has come back.