A BROMSGROVE town centre traders group that once existed has been relaunched in a bid to maintain the Stourbridge Road Car Park.
The Bromsgrove Retailers and Traders Action Group (BRTAG) says it has already canvassed all the businesses on the High Street from The Strand to Worcester Road and the overwhelming view was the area where the McDonald’s has been proposed should remain for parking.
The inaugural meeting was held on Wednesday night where Martin Connellan, the Bromsgrove Cobbler, was elected as chairman and Dennis Norton, the former leader of the district council, vice-chairman.
Other representatives included Lorita Cornish from Decanter Spirit, Gareth Hodson from GJH Electrical, Harjinder Sandhu from Oceans Fish Bar, Craig Cain from The Rovers’ Cafe and Jamie Leavesley from Coffee 2.
The group said with the houses built in Bromsgrove over the last three years, they anticipated there were more than 2,000 more cars in the district and more drivers wanting to park in the town centre.
Mr Norton said: “Bromsgrove was recently named as the third best commuter town in the country and, while people work in Birmingham, many of them will shop in the town centre.”
Mr Connellan added: “A lot of my customers who come in say they struggle to park already and many say they want more car parking in Bromsgrove, not less.”
The group said parking spaces had already been lost at the Market Street Car Park because, as well as Waitrose’s arrival, a lot of the area had been boarded up for the last two years.
They said they had enlisted the help of a planning consultant to fight the proposal and would be prepared to take out an injunction or call for a judicial review if necessary.
The group will also be in the High Street next Saturday, February 3, with a petition calling for the car park to be kept for traders and residents to sign.
Mr Connellan said: “The car parking is the first issue we are addressing but it is not just that.
“There are others such as cleanliness and rats and we will tackle these one by one until we get it all done and improve the town centre for everyone.
“This is an independent group to give the traders a voice and we want as many people as possible to join us.”
The new group will meet on the last Wednesday of every month with the next one scheduled for February 28.
Email Mr Connellan at [email protected] or call him on 01527 576560 for more information.
A council spokesperson said the site had been included in the adopted local plan as a development site.
Coun Karen May, whose portfolio covers economic development and the town centre, said: “As part of a review of car parking in Bromsgrove a consultation has been undertaken that looked at how people use our car parks and what their needs are.
“We were presented with the initial findings of that yesterday and the results will help us drive a strategy to improve car parking in our town centre and steer the future development of Bromsgrove.
“We have not lost any car parks in the last year and indeed the new car park for the sports centre will be constructed soon.”
