Bilston Road businesses suffered 'horrendous' financial losses due to metro work, taskforce finds
The financial loss to Bilston Road businesses during the metro work was "horrendous", a taskforce has said.
Around 60 businesses based along the Bilston Road in Wolverhampton saw profits take a hit during six months of work to replace tram tracks from the city centre in 2017.
Four businesses also went bust during works on the mile and a half route, with traders demanding compensation from the combined authority for the works.
Last year the West Midlands Combined Authority established the Bilston Road Task and Finish group to look at the impact the metro work had on businesses.
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Now Councillor Steven Simkins has reported back the group's findings, saying it is "quite clear" that businesses in the area had suffered.
“Listening to the trials and tribulations of the traders, it’s quite clear that they were affected by the length of time that it took to deliver this, and they felt that they weren’t consulted by Wolverhampton City Council – not to understand the enormity of the new track that had to be laid,” he said.
“It’s quite clear that the area did suffer low trade numbers, and if you just look at how many businesses have been lost in that area, that flies in the face of the ethos of what we’re trying to achieve in the combined authority, especially with the metro extensions.
“Because the number of businesses, and this is a fact, that were lost was horrendous.
“Now it’s a loss of business, but it’s also a loss of people’s livelihoods. We can not assess the stress and strain that this has put on to the families of these people who have lost their jobs. We can not stress to the feeling of being left behind and not being responded to, is what I felt.
“I’ve got lots of sympathies with the traders because it’s their livelihoods, and they never ever felt that they were being listened to. This cannot happen in the future.
“With a lot of businesses, people lost jobs. And that isn’t the ethos of the combined authority. It should be to develop and enhance the quality of life, and also business opportunities. This refurbishment had an adverse effect, and it’s quite clear to see now.
“I’ll say it on the record, it should be looked at in the light of we should be looking at some sort of compensation package or some sort of recognition that things were wrong.”
The group, which considered evidence from both local businesses and the Midland Metro Alliance, made a number of observations about the works, as well as making a series of recommendations for the future.
These included:
The duration and impact of the works may have been prolonged by keeping Bilston Road open through the track replacement works, as opposed to conducting a full road closure – something which the authority has been told to look more closely at in future.
The behaviour of some site staff caused inconvenience to some businesses and impacted on their willingness to accept the inconvenience caused by the track replacement works – with a recommendation to provide better training to site staff in future.
Road traffic marshals need to have sufficient local knowledge to assist road users to navigate diversions, and for customers/suppliers to be able to access businesses affected by significant temporary traffic management arrangements.
Businesses suggested that an additional Metro stop on Bilston Road would be beneficial and could have a regenerative impact on the local community – something the WMCA have been asked to look at the practicalities of.
That the cost of providing financial support to businesses be worked into future metro scheme budgets.
