Shropshire parking changes: Shrewsbury businessman wants 1,000 to join him in protest march
A Shrewsbury businessman is hoping that more than 1,000 people will join him on a march to protest against the proposed changes to parking in the town.
Jeff Anderson, from Bodytech gym, in Mardol, said Shropshire Council leader Peter Nutting, who used to run a sports shop in the town, should be "ashamed" of himself after turning his back on his fellow shopkeepers.
He said that any increases to charges for on-street parking per hour would have a disastrous effect on trade in the town and added that any changes to the parking structure in Shrewsbury would be the final straw for businesses already reeling from increases to their rates.
“They are telling us this is not to raise more funds but to ease congestion,” said Jeff. “This is a lovely historic town, congestion will always occur. But it seems to me that the council want to turn it in to an American town, with out-of-town retail parks and supermarkets.
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“They do not want cars in the centre. I have been in town for 20 years. This is a busy gym. We have around 500 people using our classes each week. If a change to the times people are allowed to park for free on the street comes in to force, at the moment there is no charge after 6pm, this will cause us real problems.
“We are a community gym. We offer apprenticeships, we have run courses such as personal training courses and first aid courses. We offer baby ballet and our oldest client is 98. It is demoralising and disheartening for the council to even be contemplating to do this to increase revenue.”
He said that there had already been a deep decline in the number visiting of visitors to the gym’s cafe.
“We used to take £200 per day in the coffee shop, that is now down to £80. That is just an illustration of the drop in trade across the town. These are the worst trading conditions we have had in 20 years. Footfall is down.
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"We are always going to have congestion in this town, increasing car parking charges in not going to reduce that.” I estimate that a third of the businesses in town are going to close if this goes through.
“The way things are going I would not recommend anybody to start a new business in Shrewsbury. The people on the council have no idea of the stress that we have to deal with.”
A date for the march will be announced within the next few days.
Final preparations are now being made for the protest, which Jeff is proposing takes place at around 6pm
