14th December 2011

BRIDPORT: Fence has affected business say traders

By Paul Crompton

A DECISION to move a fence away from shops has been made too late say traders.

The controversial fence was erected around Bridport Town Hall as renovation work on the building began at the start of the year.

But traders said moving the 6ft fence back by a few feet last Friday, December 9th had come too late for them to claw back trade lost throughout the summer.

The fence was built to separate building contractors and pedestrians as work began on the town’s historic hall last January.

Shopkeepers on Bucky Doo Square blamed the fence, which jutted onto the pavement outside their shops and into the square, for a fall in trade during the summer.

Shopkeeper Andrew Peters, co-owner of Get Stuffed, said his takings were down 25 per cent this year.

Mr Peters said: “The council do things to their own schedule. It wouldn’t make any difference to us now if the fence stayed there until Easter.

“In the long run it was a disaster, we are 25 per cent down for the whole year.

“Time will tell if it is a good things for us, if we are back to normal levels next year, then we will know the fall in trade was because of the fence.”

Maria Longly, co-owner of Bella’s food shop on Bucky Doo Square, said moving the fence would not help them now their busiest time “has been and gone”.

She said: “Our season has passed now until next spring so moving the fence now won’t make a huge amount of difference to us.

“Throughout the summer, when it’s extremely busy here, it was disruptive because it was noisy and we were stuck for space.”

Work to bring the 200-year-old Grade I listed building back to its former is set to take a yeart to complete.

The Mayor, Councillor David Rickard said they had tried to minimise the impact on businesses as mush as possible.

He said: “We have pulled back the fence but obviously there still needs to be a compound for workers, but we are minimising the area as much as possible all the time.

“We have done everything we can to minimise the impact but obviously it’s a year-long project and you cannot have something like that without having an impact.

“The size of the compound is a fraction of what most companies would demand so workers have had to accept the cramped space.”

The £1.4million Town Hall Heritage and Conservation Project scheme was made possible through a £600,000 handout from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).

Bridport Town Council has given £400,000, and West Dorset District Council and Dorset County Council have also supported the project.

Work is set to finish on the Town Hall early in the new year.

PICTURE: MOVED BUT NOT QUICKLY ENOUGH - Andrew Peters by the fence surrounding the Town Hall restoration