Traders have supported the move to abolish Wolverhampton’s controversial red route - as it emerged a similar scheme to be introduced on the A454 Keyway in Willenhall was already causing a headache.
Signs put up by contractor Amey on the Walsall-bound side of the carriageway are to be ripped down after being deemed too big and replaced at the expense of taxpayers.
Wolverhampton shopkeepers have continually criticised the £1.7 million route along a three-mile stretch of the A449 Stafford Road, which caused uproar when introduced in March last year.
Chris Watson, aged 55, from ABN Domestic Appliances in Oxley, said today he had been there 30 years and the last eight months had been the worst of his career.
“The red route has been devastating for our business,” he said. “Probably not because of the route itself, but the fear that has been instilled. People are too scared to stop even when they are legally allowed to do so.”
Sohan Lal, aged 46, proprietor of Alpha Pharmacy, also applauded plans to scrap the route completely.
“I think people will welcome it,” he added. “The problem for us has been that although we have had free parking spaces outside, others can take them because they isn’t much parking.”
Mary Betts, aged 38, duty manager of Oxley Food Store, said: “This will be welcomed around here, even though we have a car park.
“It may be putting people off because they cannot park on the roads. I can’t say that I have spoken to anyone who thought this was a good idea, so it will be good to see it go.”
Carrie Evans, aged 26, from Harvey Richards Unisex Hair Salon, said the parking restrictions had made it difficult for customers booked in for treatments such as colours who needed to stay longer than an hour. “Getting rid of it will be good news for the business,” she added.
Work to transform the rest of the A454 is expected to start next summer.
Loading ...
5 Comments
Wasn’t the whole idea of the red route to stop people parking on the road making the traffic flow more easily and stopping tailbacks etc? All of the business commenting are encouraging customers to park on the the road. Before the red route people used to moan about the cars parking on the raod causing these tail backs and making it dangerous for people trying to cross the road because they can’t see the on coming traffic clearly it’ll be back to square one, and yet again it’ll be the residents of Wolverhampton that have to pay for it. I’d like to know how much the whole think has cost us in the time it was introduced and then taking it away again. It seems to me the new leaders are probably doing it just because they can as it was introduced by labour, they’re all act like children, I wonder if the said nah nah na nah na after announcing it?
We need more of these red routes not less, Wolverhampton is such a beautiful well kept city, just needs little less congestion
This red route was an ugly, confusing, parking fine trap that actually did little to relieve congestion. My/Our money should have been invested to better the public transport infrastructure instead of this extremely costly and unpopular think tank failure.
Oh that’s just great! People power eh… Now watch the traffic grind to a miserable halt again
£1.7 Million to paint a few red lines & put up several signs????????????????????