Derek Cooke, the entrepreneur who has run the Londis business at the Junction of Yates Hay Road and Upper Howsell Road for 30 years is seeing his business threatened by a Traffic Regulation Order.
A feasibility study conducted about 2 years ago, before I was elected as County Councillor for Malvern Trinity was apparently conducted as this junction had been identified as a ‘cluster site’ – that is an accident black spot, however thankfully it is no longer officially in this category.
But the TRO process has moved on, nonetheless, and on top of this there is a small sum of s106 money. The process has passed objection stage and is awaiting a decision to be made by the officer responsible for Sustainable Schemes together with the Cabinet member.
The intention is to paint double yellow lines around the junction outside Mr Cooke’s doors at Londis, install a couple of bollards on each side of the road at the crossing points and make some improvements to the kerbside.
Derek Cooke has objected to these plans and as his County Councillor I have also objected to try to support him and his business.
He is not impressed by them. “We have 8-10,000 people a week visiting my store and we employ 20 people here as we’re open 6am -10pm seven days a week. We thrive on having an area outside that’s easy for people to park in. They want to pop in for their shopping or to use our free cashpoint.
“Double yellow lines outside our store will only put people off. As soon as you put double yellow lines outside people will pass by, they won’t stop anymore. As much as anything they are a psychological barrier, people see them and just don’t want to stop.”
Mr Cooke’s concerns aren’t limited to his business though. He has genuine concerns about the volume of traffic moving through this junction daily, the need for increased parking in the area generally and the congestion and dangers caused by the heavier vehicles, especially the buses using Yates Hay Road.
Buses Using Yates Hay Road
“The 363, 362 and 45 bus routes used to drive down Tanhouse Lane, but were re-routed down Yates Hay Road having to turn right past my store up Upper Howsell Road.
"This is a tight junction and with cars parked around there is not a lot of space and the buses, including School buses at either end of the school day, drive over the pavements, knocking cars and they are a risk to pedestrians. I would like to see these buses returning to their original route down Tanhouse Lane.
“Rather than painting double yellow lines outside my store I think we could slow traffic down along Tanhouse Lane with some traffic calming measures and I’d also like to see vehicle weight restrictions down Yates Hay Road which is a busy and narrow residential road.
“My business needs customers to survive. I have a lot of deliveries each week which we need for our customers. Each week I have 6 large articulated lorries making deliveries, 3 Ginsters lorries, Kerry Foods making 6 deliveries weekly, 7 milk deliveries, 2 Frozen food deliveries and others as well.
“We know we’re valued by our customers because their goodwill and votes for us resulted in our winning the Robert Weisman ‘Best Staff of the Year Award’ 2 years ago and this year we’ve reached the Semi Finals and hope very much to get through the Finals following a Mystery Shop visit that will be made as part of the judging process.
“Double Yellow lines in Malvern Link have killed off those shops and businesses. This TRO is going to make access to the store more difficult given the number of heavy traffic movements around the store, especially since the bus route has changed with buses coming down Yates Hay Road rather than along Tanhouse Lane as they did in the past. The s106 money appears to address theneeds of pedestrians in isolation of the needs of all road users.”
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