A new temporary barrier has been installed in the centre of York, infuriating nearby businesses.
The barrier has been placed on Church Street, directly outside The Great Yorkshire Sweet Shop and Doe Bakehouse.
It’s the sort of temporary barrier that was meant to have been banished after £3.5m was spent installing permanent bollards around the city centre, causing months of upheaval.
Adam Scott, who owns the sweet shop, was shocked to see the new barrier.
It was installed on Tuesday morning (26 November) – with neighbouring shops told it was coming less than a week before.
Now it will stay until the end of the Christmas market.
“I was really worried about the barriers swinging open and covering the front of the shop,” Adam said.
“But what’s arrived covers most of the shop anyway, and they want to put a ramp up as well, which will cover the rest of it.”
He added: “What’s going to happen come Saturday night is the barrier is going to be filled with about 400 cups, and litter of various types.”
But even without the litter, customers will be deterred from entering his Church Street sweet shop he said.
“I’ll lose a substantial amount of money, it’ll cost me a fortune with people not coming into the shop after being put off by the ugliness of the barrier.
“You need a bit of charm with a sweet shop. That is not charming, and it’s going to be even less charming when you’ve got 400 cups on the top.”
Gina Varley, who works at the shop, said the barrier was not necessary. “We just think it’s over the top, it’s only down for two hours. They could have just put a road closed sign with a person standing there to assess the area.”
She added: “There was no consultation, they just came and handed us a letter saying we’re putting a barrier out there, no questions.
“These were a lot bigger than we all thought.”
Adam told YorkMix he appreciated the fact that those who came to install the barriers listened to his requests as best they could.
“They did their very best to make it as not horrible as possible, and that’s fair play.”
Operational factors
There are also operational factors that come with the barrier, which both Gina and Adam have concerns around.
Drainage is a major worry for Gina, as the barrier is obstructing a drain that frequently floods outside the shop.
“They’re supposed to be putting a yellow ramp under the barrier, because the drain underneath floods, so it’ll be difficult to empty it with the barrier on top.
“It’s blocked all the time, and if it blocks again, that’s a lot of effort to move the barrier off and get it done,” Gina said.
Adam feels the areas allowing pedestrians to pass through are also too small to manage the scale of crowds that the Christmas Markets bring to the city.
“Come Saturday night, when it does come down, you’re gonna have a massive funnelling effect, which they haven’t even thought about.
“There’s massive crowds all coming the same way, and they’ve got three feet either side to get through.
“The actual decision to put the barrier there, is just mental,” Adam added.
Blue Badge access
The decision to install the barrier came after the City of York Council extended access for Blue Badge holders during the Christmas market.
They can now drive in from 5pm rather than the original time of 7pm.
They will now be able to access the city centre from 5pm via the sliding barriers at Goodramgate.
Access via Blake Street will also be open from 7pm through to 10.30am.
The new Church Street sliding barrier is to stop hostile vehicles entering into the centre of town, coming in through the reopened Goodramgate entrance.
To protect shoppers and stall operators, the barrier will be down between the hours of 5pm and 7pm.
James Gilchrist, director of environment, transport and planning at City of York Council, said: “Working at short notice, we’ve secured an anti-terrorism barrier from the UK’s only provider, for Church Street to protect those working in and visiting the markets.”