Barnsley Council helps to kill off a high street

Life is hard enough for independent high street traders, and as you struggle to keep your business going the last thing you need is your council making life harder for you. Unfortunately, for traders in Goldthorpe, this is exactly what Barnsley Council has done.

Traders have been in a dispute with the council over roadworks along Barnsley and Doncaster Road.  Shoppers have found it difficult to get past barriers, and trade has dropped off. Some businesses have closed, and others have had make staff redundant. To add a final nail in the coffin, the council now intends to turn the Barnsley and Doncaster Road into a clearway which will be enforced by cameras. Amazing how councils claim they don't have any money, but always seem to manage to find spare cash for so-called improvement schemes that people don't want, and cameras to enforce parking restrictions no-one wants either.

Mick Branford who runs a furniture store  had to lay-off his last member of staff. He had this to say.
I stopped deliveries in March. Parking has been impossible and now there are plans to make the road a clearway I think it’s time to go. You can’t walk far with heavy furniture

Mr Branford is not the only one to say this. Terry Walton who runs a DIY shop said several people have had enough and packed up already. It’s just too much. The work was supposed to have been all done by now.

There's nothing that can be done about the roadworks and the trade lost through them, although the council has allowed the roadworks to carry on for longer than they should have done and has to take some responsibility. Unless it intends to kill of trade completely, it should listen to the concerns of traders and shoppers. The council is there to serve the local community, and the wall of silence and indifference it is showing to those who are trying to make an honest living is making an appalling situation even worse.

 Life is hard enough for independent high street traders, and as you struggle to keep your business going the last thing you need is your council making life harder for you. Unfortunately, for traders in Goldthorpe, this is exactly what Barnsley Council has done.

Traders have been in a dispute with the council over roadworks along Barnsley and Doncaster Road.  Shoppers have found it difficult to get past barriers, and trade has dropped off. Some businesses have closed, and others have had make staff redundant. To add a final nail in the coffin, the council now intends to turn the Barnsley and Doncaster Road into a clearway which will be enforced by cameras. Amazing how councils claim they don't have any money, but always seem to manage to find spare cash for so-called improvement schemes that people don't want, and cameras to enforce parking restrictions no-one wants either.

Mick Branford who runs a furniture store  had to lay-off his last member of staff. He had this to say.
I stopped deliveries in March. Parking has been impossible and now there are plans to make the road a clearway I think it’s time to go. You can’t walk far with heavy furniture

Mr Branford is not the only one to say this. Terry Walton who runs a DIY shop said several people have had enough and packed up already. It’s just too much. The work was supposed to have been all done by now.

There's nothing that can be done about the roadworks and the trade lost through them, although the council has allowed the roadworks to carry on for longer than they should have done and has to take some responsibility. Unless it intends to kill of trade completely, it should listen to the concerns of traders and shoppers. The council is there to serve the local community, and the wall of silence and indifference it is showing to those who are trying to make an honest living is making an appalling situation even worse.

 
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