Local authorities across the UK are ‘accelerating the decline of the high street’ with unnecessary road closures, according to Bira, which has been inundated with calls from retailers concerned that post-lockdown accessibility issues are significantly impacting trade.
Bira is now working hard to help retailres address these problems, and to bring the issue to the attention of central government and the national media.
In many cases, local councils are ploughing ahead with road closures, high street pedestrianisations, and the removal of car parking spaces – all essential for shoppers to reach independent shops. At the end of July, Bira called on Boris Johnson to intervene and ‘reopen our high streets’.
The plea followed Bira’s membership survey which revealed that three quarters (75%) of you said trade is being detrimentally impacted by lockdown road closures. The poll revealed that of those affected, 55% said trade had been impacted ‘significantly’, while a further 20% of you admitted the closures had affected trade ‘a little’.
Andrew Goodacre, Bira’s CEO, said: “It appears that many local authorities are doing their best to further accelerate the decline of their high streets with road closures, and removal of car parking spaces. The pavements are generally not that busy, and people still do not want to use public transport. The local authorities are doing a good job of supporting retail parks instead of their local business communities.”
Read more about Bira’s post-lockdown road closures campaign here
