The franchise in St. Martin’s in Leicester is closing down due to a proposed pedestrianisation of the surrounding area.
The store in Leicester (Credit: This is Leicestershire)
This is Leicestershire reported that Pete Butler, the current franchise owner of the store in Leicester, is shutting the shop on 17 August because he “fears plans to make the surrounding streets car-free will cost him half of his customers”.
Butler, who has run the franchise since 2008, has decided against renewing a five year lease, and blames the “proposed pedestrianisation scheme” in the city planned by Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby, with Hotel Street and Grey Friars in Leicester being paved over as part of the £19 million ($29 million/€21.9 million) Connecting Leicester initiative. Butler did however note that he would carry on operating a business with Cartridge World “somewhere, but it won’t be from here”.
Many of the customers that Butler receives at Cartridge World park nearby, and with the removal of the spaces, Butler feels that many simply won’t come as they cannot park close enough to the shop. The plans have already caused issues with other traders in the St. Martin’s area, and the newspaper notes that “if their objections cannot be resolved by the council, a Government inspector could be called in to adjudicate on the proposed traffic regulation orders”.
However, this comes too late for Butler, who stated: “My customers come in from across the county to recycle cartridges or bring in printers. If they can’t stop outside the door, many of them won’t come. If it weren’t for the pedestrianisation I probably would have carried on. It’s a great spot – at the moment – but I’m faced with losing half my trade and I can’t take that risk.
“I will be the first to go, but if these streets are pedestrianised another four or five shops could follow. I’m not against everything Peter Soulsby is doing. I think his plans for the indoor market are great but he doesn’t seem to understand that customers need to get near shops. We’ll have lovely street surfaces but a load of empty shops.”
Soulsby responded: “The council has a lot of experience with pedestrianisation schemes. I was around when Gallowtree was pedestrianised. People said all the shops would close and Marks & Spencers would be out within the week. There were similar dire predictions when Market Street was pedestrianised. Those streets are still succeeding.”