Hold on stadium parking zone 'good news for now'

Business owners have welcomed Liverpool City Council's decision to suspend controversial parking restrictions near Everton's new stadium.

An Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (Etro), including heavy restrictions on street parking, was introduced earlier this year within a half-hour walking radius of the Bramley-Moore Dock stadium.

On Monday, the council agreed to pause the restrictions until August in areas where businesses have been most heavily impacted.

Paul Blair, who owns the Hot Water Comedy Club, led a petition against the restrictions. He said that while businesses welcomed the council's decision, they were still feeling the impact of the seven weeks the rules have been in place.

"They've obviously seen an impact in sales and customers," said Mr Blair, who also owns Blackstock Market.

"There's been loads of concern about it moving forward, especially if they started to implement it every day in August, which is a huge concern.

"Hopefully there will be a proper economic impact assessment done and we're listened to before changes are made."

The council said it had received more than 5,000 responses as part of a public consultation.

Business owners in the streets around the stadium said they were very worried about the council's initial plans to enforce traffic restrictions all year round, rather than only on matchdays.

Some even claimed the rules could force them out of business.

Mr Blair said more than 200 companies had been affected by the restrictions and complained about what he regarded as a lack of communication.

"Nobody knew about it," he said.

"These businesses operate every day. We have staff every day. We have about 5,000 customers a week and they were literally impacted straight away.

"It's just lack of foresight, lack of any economic impact assessment."

Fraser Smith, managing director of the Downland bedding company which is based about 30 minutes from the stadium, said the council's concessions were "fantastic news on face value".

But he sounded a note of caution.

"It is only a temporary measure - we'll have to see what happens in August. But for now it's good news for all the businesses that are affected by this."

Mr Blair said he was pleased with the way the local community had come together over the last few weeks.

He said he was hopeful that now there is an open line of communication with the council, any future changes will be discussed and agreed with residents and businesses before they introduced.

The council's cabinet member for transport and connectivity, Dan Barrington, said the restrictions were part of an "experimental traffic order" so changes could be made once it was live.

"It's given us this space to be able to listen to concerns from people, particularly as it went live, and we've taken that into consideration," he said.

"We really want to get the best situation for everyone in the area," added Barrington.

"It's complex and complicated - the whole reason we did this as an experimental traffic order was because we knew ultimately there would need to be tweaks and changes."

Everton will leave Goodison Park at the end of the season in May before kicking off life at Bramley-Moore Dock in August.

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