Traders on Shambles fear they could lose a total of £250,000 in the next few weeks – while the street itself will lose some of its famous cobbles.
And the complete closure of one end of the street to pedestrians has potential safety issues that haven’t been addressed.
So says Phil Pinder, a leading light in both the Shambles Area Traders’ Association and York High Street Forum, after meeting with City of York Council officers to raise his concerns.
The Pavement end of Shambles will close on Monday (11 September) for four weeks for anti-terror bollards to be installed.
Council officers took over a stall on Shambles Market to discuss traders’ concerns yesterday (Tuesday). But after talking to them, Phil – who co-owns the Potions Cauldron on the street – said his fears were as bad as ever.
And he called for one of the senior council officers involved to “consider his position”.
“We’re here on Shambles and it is a shambles, it’s a disgrace,” he told YorkMix.
“No one’s ever closed the end of Shambles. It’s probably going to be quieter than it was during Covid.”
Goodramgate businesses have been hit hard by the work in their street, and Shambles traders were very worried too, Phil said.
“I estimate it’s probably going to cost each business five figures of lost trade because it’s going to decimate the Shambles’ footfall.
“If you replicate that across the street, you’re probably talking a quarter of a million pounds in lost business.”
Business rate plea
He feels let down by both the councillors and council officers.
He said he was told two years ago by the council’s corporate director of place Neil Ferris that no part of Shambles would be closed to pedestrians, but the Pavement end will be shut for four weeks.
“I think that man really needs to consider his job,” he said. “Sadly the officers really do run York council. Where are the councillors on this?
“Come on councillors, we need you to say to the officers ‘we need some support for businesses’.
“Manchester gave business rates support, and other councils are giving business rate support when they’ve installed measures like this.”
But no such support was being offered here. “And yet in York, we are going to be closing Europe’s oldest shopping street and could potentially be closing some of the independent businesses here.
“The fact that the council are not even going to say you can have two weeks’ free business rates is absolutely appalling.
“It shows the short sightedness and lack of planning and lack of skill from anyone at the council to understand a business case.”
Phil said he might be driven to take “drastic action” and remove some of the “many” road closed signs to protect his business.
Safety concerns
The historic wood-constructed buildings on Shambles have interlinked zonal fire alarms. When two or more are activated, the street must be evacuated.
Phil said he was surprised that the council hadn’t undertaken a fire risk assessment based on the impact of closing one end of the street. If the alarms go off during the works, there could be “bedlam” he said.
In response, he was also told security people would be in the street who are “literally going to limit the number of people who can enter the Shambles. You couldn’t make it up.”
A section of Shambles cobbles will be removed to allow for the installation of the bollards.
“Why we can’t install them where it’s Tarmac, I don’t know. Well, I do because I asked the question this morning,” Phil said.
“And the reply was, that would involve more bollards and more costs, so the Shambles has been sacrificed and we’re going to lose the cobbles for modern, Chinese-made paving that looks quite frankly hideous.”
He also believes the work could be completed much more quickly if it was done more intensely.
“The planning on this is shocking. No work’s going on at weekends because the workers need to be with their families and you apparently can’t employ more workmen.
“I would be running the work from 7am in the morning to 10 o’clock at night. There are no residents in the immediate vicinity.”
He added: “Apparently they’re going to do a bit of digging for a few weeks. They’re then going to place a load of concrete in the ground and wait for that to dry for seven days.
“During that time they’re not going to reopen the end of Shambles – it’s going to remain fully closed – because apparently you can’t put a pedestrian bridge over the works.”
We have put all these points to the council, and will update if they respond.
The original version of this article included a photograph of Phil Pinder talking to City of York Council officers about his concerns at a communications stall on Shambles Market. We have removed this photograph at the request of City of York Council