‘We are sick of the abuse we get from groups of drunken men and women from stag and hen parties.’
Those are the words of Alan Wilkinson, who runs the Axis Barber Shop in New Street, York.
He is the latest person to speak out against the plan to create a new restaurant and bar in the former BHS store.
Planning permission is being sought from City of York Council to turn one of the three units being created from the Coney Street store into a Revolucion De Cuba Bar.
This would open on to New Street, a few doors down from where Mr Wilkinson runs his barber shop six days a week.
Hitting ‘every decent business’
In an objection to the new bar lodged with planners, Mr Wilkinson reveals the toll drunken behaviour has had on his business.
Since before Christmas he has been closing his shop at 4pm on York’s busiest shopping day, Saturday, because of the drunken behaviour he has encountered.
He said:
I feel another bar is the last thing our street needs let alone York in general.
The amount of drunkenness and inflatables in poor taste are a disgrace.
Mr Wilkinson says these antics are “putting people off from coming into York on a Saturday to do shopping.
“It’s having an effect on every decent business not just mine. The mess people leave is also
disgusting, from vomit to blood after the night before.”
Nuisance behaviour
His comments are added to a growing list of objectors. Spearheading the fight against the new bar are the police, who believe it would result in “increased problems of disorder and public nuisance affecting residents, visitors and other businesses”.
Andrew Knights, who runs Dusk, a bar operating almost opposite the New Street entrance of BHS, says it will “add anti-social problems on New Street that we have spent a decade battling against already”.
He also believes people are staying away from York on Saturdays to avoid the trouble.
Another new objector is York artist Kevin Greenhill, who is also worried about the potential impact on the city centre from “drunken and nuisance behaviour” .