My Bexhill business will suffer under proposed pedestrian plan

Having just heard about the proposals for Western Road, Bexhill, I am writing to you to express my views.

I entirely disagree with pedestrianising it due to having a very busy shop with living accommodation above. There are many reasons why I would like to contest this proposal, even as a temporary measure.

1) Running both a locksmiths and double glazing business in the town for 40 years now, I consider myself to be an established business with regular customers, and specialize in key cutting, including car keys. This brings me to one of my points, in order to cut most car keys, most modern cars have remotes and we would need the car close by in order to program the key, this can be very complicated and we have invested a great deal of money into this side of the business. We do not want to lose it.

2) On the locksmiths side, I am regularly called out for periods of time as people do not have keys to get in or the lock is broken for example and so am in and out on a regular basis. Customers are aware I have to keep locking my shop up for call outs, and coming back to get the correct parts and then back to the job. I waited a long time for a car parking bay to come up in Western Road so as to not restrict the traffic accumulating in the road, although that’s not been without its issues but it has been the most successful option.

3) The double glazing aspect of the business means I have to transport heavy items, and receive heavy items when suppliers are able to deliver, this means the deliveries arrive at all times of the day and from many companies such as patio doors, glazing etc. Most of our manufacturers come from long distances, from all over the UK and we have to be available for them and not the other way round.

4). I also have accommodation above the shop.

5). We have had half of the town foot fall lost when Ravenside opened years ago, business sales have not ever recovered from this. It is already very difficult to compete with big corporate companies that have multi-sales (everything from fruit to nuts and bolts!)

Making it difficult for customers to park and access smaller businesses may encourage them to shop elsewhere, where there are parking facilities out of convenience. So for me as a trader I think my business will be hugely affected by pedestrianising the street.

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