Angry traders ‘never seen an accident’ at ‘huge’ layby

Matthew Hall, owner of Hall Hair, says while his customers are usually happy to park further away, the lack of parking has also affected his deliveries and customers dropping off relatives for appointments.

He said: “The layby is huge, you can now fit about three buses in it.

“Why it needs to be that long, when we only get about two buses an hour, I don’t know.

“We had someone being picked up last week who was in a wheelchair.

“She has come to the shop for years but has accessibility issues.

“The person picking her up got a ticket.

“Parking is at a premium everywhere now and to run a business you rely on people being able to get to you.”

Joy Johnson has been a regular at the hairdressers for more than 10 years and was shocked to see the place she usually parks off limits.

The Hill View resident said: “After everything that has been going on with Covid, I think it’s ridiculous.

“I come here every four weeks and I always park there.

“There are people who are disabled and they won’t be able to come here at all now.

“There’s no wheelchair access to the car park; at least they could come up the ramp before.”

Yakup Yalcin, owner of Ashford Dry Cleaners, said: “People don’t stop any more and it makes us upset because they used to pop in quickly and now we are losing them.

“I would like to see them put it back to normal because there has never been an accident.

“Worst-case scenario, you could move the bus stop further up the road into the other layby.

“We have tried to tell customers to park in the car park but not many people know it’s there.”

Joy Johnson is outraged by the changes