A businesswoman who says she has invested £2.2 million into a new venture is now “rethinking the future” after discovering plans to cut her passing trade.
Debbie Tams has been planning a new luxury beauty salon, mini-spa and restaurant on Etruria Road, in Basford, for the past four years.
The business, named Beauty and the Bistro, had encountered many setbacks during that time including the loss of a main funder, problems with planning and securing loans.
Yesterday, Debbie found out via Daily Focus about plans to introduce a bus gate to stop private motorists travelling westbound on Etruria Road (Basford Bank) from the A500 junction towards Newcastle-under-Lyme during rush hours.
The proposed scheme has come about because the Government has instructed local councils to reduce illegal levels of air pollution detected at the traffic hotspot in a bid to protect people’s health.
Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce has written to Government ministers raising major concerns for businesses and asked for a rethink of the plans, which also include a clean air zone encompassing the city centre through to Victoria Road in Fenton.
Debbie has secured a new building for her venture, pictured above, and work has just recommenced with a view to opening in autumn or winter this year. Around 50 jobs would be created.
After hearing the bus gate news, she said: “I am absolutely devastated. I have lived a nightmare trying to set up a business which will benefit the area, now I’m left rethinking the future.
“In this economic climate, we need help to set businesses up, not the destruction and chaos a bus gate will cause.
“The risk I am taking is enormous. I will be reliant on passing trade and I need people to see my business and be able to get there. This could be the final nail in the coffin.”
Debbie added: “With regards to emissions levels, how are we going to get them down when they are letting the worst offenders – the lorries and buses – through?”
Read more detail about the proposed schemes here.
I am exhausted by the bureaucracy, tick box exercises, planning and environmental regulations which serve to kill productivity and growth and act as an economic terminal cancer. Only improvements in productivity will grow national prosperity. Despite today’s economic climate, growth now appears to be a dirty word amongst the Net Zero-obsessed political and media establishment.
As a local girl born and bred in Hanley, I am in the process of establishing a business on Basford Bank – a mini spa, restaurant, skin and laser clinic, and beauty salon which would be highly dependent on passing trade and footfall. This will bring much needed employment to the area. Over the past three years I have already had many obstacles in progressing to this point.
Now I am being told that passing trade is potentially being stopped (and more fines introduced) in favour of ‘clean’ air. The irony is that in addition to the emergency service vehicles, the vehicles that are ‘exempt’ are the most polluting of them all – buses, coaches and taxis which are constantly stop and starting. Can a sensible, forward-thinking approach be adopted, utilising the ‘conversion fund’ to electrify the buses and reduce particulate emissions. This would be a more favourable approach instead of destroying local businesses and causing chaos for residents. The positives simply do not outweigh the negatives.
I eagerly await the results of the Bus Gate review which will have a direct impact on this and all other neighbouring businesses.