Brighton Traders Sign Petition To Say Road Closure Has Cost Their Business

Traders have lost business after a street closed to traffic and they were told not to place tables and chairs on the road.

Thirty-two businesses in Gardner Street, Brighton, signed a petition asking the council to look again at the road closure which bans traffic from the North Laine street from 11am to 5pm seven days a week.

Brighton Business Improvement District chief Gavin Stewart told Brighton and Hove City Council’s Transport and Sustainability Committee that the traffic order permitted businesses to put tables and chairs on the pavement.

But previously cafés used to place tables and chairs in the road when the street was closed at weekends only.

At the Hove Town Hall meeting yesterday (Thursday 7 July), the Brilliant Brighton boss said that the policy supported some but not all businesses along Gardner Street.

Mr Stewart said:

“Over the weekends, the loss of trade is having an existential threat on several of the businesses in the area. These are small businesses, not mega-rich multinationals. Their profit margins are small.

“And with high inflation, coupled with increased energy bills and stock costs, it means our unique independent retail and hospitality sector needs more support than ever.”

Mr Stewart said that Marrakesh House was one of the businesses affected, losing up to 40 per cent of its sales.

The Cornish pasty shop used to have 21 seats outside the shops at weekends but was now reduced to four, denting trade by 40 per cent.

Beachfront Leisure and the Dorset Bar used to use the road at weekends – and did so for more than 20 years – and losing that space had had a “devastating effect”, Mr Stewart said, adding:

“The businesses at the heart of this community need saving now before the summer hits.”

He said that traders wanted a meeting with the council to ask policy-makers to take another look at the rules around tables and chairs to allow more seating on the road at weekends and bank holidays.

The road closure has proved controversial, with Brighton Access for Disabled Groups Everywhere (BADGE) saying that extended pavement licensing had created “no-go” areas for people with wheelchairs, mobility aids and those with impaired sight.

Possability People chief officer Geraldine Des Moulins warned last November that the closure would impose a curfew on disabled people living in Gardner Street, “imprisoning them in their own homes” for six hours daily.

Labour councillor Trevor Muten, who chairs the Transport and Sustainability Committee, said that the street had closed daily from 11am to 5pm since January after a full consultation and formal decision.

Councillor Muten said:

“Businesses are allowed to use the full width of the footways outside their premises between 11am and 5pm each day.

“This creates a welcoming 3m to 4m-wide thoroughfare along the road for pedestrians. Officers have received several comments that this space is now more attractive to use.”

He said that when the carriageway was used fully in the past, only at weekends, the narrow pavements often became difficult to navigate for people with disabilities.

The council’s executive director for the economy, environment and culture Donna Chisholm said that she would arrange for officers to visit Gardner Street to review the situation before the end of July.