By Lesley Walsh
BUSINESSES reeling from disruption to trade by the recent footpaths replacement in Newtownards are bracing themselves for further problems, as Frances Street suffers another shutdown for resurfacing over the next couple of weekends.
Stanley Kydd of Frances Street Maxol Filling Station will lose all his fuel trade for 24 hours from Saturday evening, having a knock-on impact on staff who will lose hours as the traffic restrictions bite business.
Traffic cones will stop traffic on the busy thoroughfare this weekend from 7pm on Saturday to 7pm on Sunday and the same next weekend, despite Saturday night being ‘one of our busiest times’ for local fast food outlets.
While business owners understand the need for resurfacing, they said traffic cones have already been set in place ahead of work, appearing on Monday afternoon, five days before the scheduled closures.
They have spoken of their upset at being informed of the road closures without being given any opportunity to discuss possible mitigating measures, and have just ‘had to accept’ the bad news, which comes during the traditional economic doldrums of January.
Mr Kydd said ‘there will be no access for cars from 7pm on Saturday to 7pm on Sunday night – they won’t be able to drive in’.
“This time of the year means we are going to have staff who will be losing hours; it’s very poor having to do this in January considering the cost of
living,” he said.
The businessman said he had a meeting with a Roads Service official on Tuesday who said they ‘appreciated’ the impact on staff. However, Mr Kydd countered that ‘how can he appreciate that’ when it is not something he has had to experience.
“It’s more the fact of not being kept informed; you get a letter through the post and you just have to accept it,” he added. “No one sat down with us and
said this was going to happen. The letter was sent to occupiers and residents and didn’t even mention us businesses; there were no meetings about this.”
Another local trader agreed that he understands the need for resurfacing works but said the work couldn’t come at a worse time, hot on the heels of an extended period of disruption to allow the footpaths to be replaced, and during the lowest trading period of the year, when sales are routinely down.
The businessman said Saturday night, when the road is to be closed, is ‘one of our busiest times’.
“It’s enough that the road is closing then, but they are putting cones since yesterday (Monday) and the customers can’t get parked and that will greatly affect our trade. By Saturday there will be no parking,” he said. “January trade is already traditionally down between 20-25% each year,” revealed.
“When they were doing the footpath there were complaints that there were large sections where they didn’t lift the cones away,” he said.
The trader said business was ‘certainly’ affected ‘when there were large sections where you weren’t able to park on a stretch between Windmill Row and the roundabout at the end of Frances Street’.
The retailer wondered why ‘smaller sections’ could have been closed off, rather than the very large areas that were closed to parking traffic.
He said he knew of businesses which had contacted Strangford MP Jim Shannon during the footpath works to complain about the impact of their businesses, and said he understood the need to improve the footpaths but said there could have been ’some leeway’.
“If they were able to work at the other end of the street on Saturday nights and not close us off at peak times that would work,” he suggested.
