Businesses on Friargate talk of difficulties faced by roadworks after update as Preston City Council tease end of long running road closure.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
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.