York shopkeepers in the city’s most famous street say trade is down – with ‘road closed’ signs one of the factors being blamed.
Shambles in York is usually one of the city’s retailing powerhouses. But retailers say they’ve seen a significant dip in takeings.
Phil Pinder, director of The Potions Cauldron, has questioned City of York Council’s decision to install ‘road closed signs’ at both ends of Shambles.
He believes the signs are not only unnecessary but are actively discouraging trade, citing a 10-16% drop in footfall.
The signs are intended for drivers, but Phil claims they confuse and deter pedestrians and take up too much space.
“They don’t make it clear that the message is not for pedestrians. The signs are just to stop vehicles, which are not allowed down the street anyway,” he said.
Installed over the Easter holidays, the signs remain in place as scaffolding work continues. At the Pavement entrance to Shambles, the signage is positioned directly in front of anti-terrorism bollards, which makes vehicle access impossible regardless.
In a LinkedIn post, Phil wrote: “Despite impenetrable barriers and a dozen sets of scaffolding, City of York Council thinks these signs are necessary.”
The post was met with over 600 reactions, and many users echoed his frustration.
“I’ve seen lots of people stop at the sign confused as I’m walking to my office in Shambles. Crazy that they can’t simply add ‘pedestrians welcome’.”
“I would just relocate the signs and place them face towards the wall!”
“Obviously the solid big metal bollards weren’t enough of a clue for motorists…”
Phil told YorkMix: “Road closed signs, in my opinion, are not needed. I don’t understand under what traffic regulations you need to close a road that is already closed to vehicles.
“The only thing you could possibly say is that outside street hours the road is closed, so maybe during the night it needs a road closed sign, but that’s when the council need to engage with traders.”
He added that he and fellow traders offered to move the signs daily, removing them in the morning and replacing them in the evenings, but the council did not take them up on it.
Another Shambles trader, Adam Scott who owns The Shambles Sweet Shop, feels that there are multiple external factors affecting trade.
He told YorkMix: “Trade is definitely down but there’s so many things going on, scaffolding, parking issues, daft signs, Trump and the wider economy – you just don’t quite know what to put things down to.”
In contrast, City of York Council yesterday released figures showing an increase in both footfall and spending across York. According to a recent report, footfall on Parliament Street was up over 28% year-on-year in April, with spending increasing by 3.7%.
However, Adam remains unconvinced. “I don’t believe a word of it. How they get them stats, I’m not sure. But it’s been down.
“Half term has been all right, but before that for weeks it was well down.”
He noted that even The York Ghost Merchants, who usually draw long queues of customers each day, have been noticeably quieter than usual.
“Even speaking to people on Petergate, they’re down on trade too,” Adam added.
City of York Council will be providing YorkMix with a comment in response, and we will update the article once they do.
