"This is worse than Covid": Sandy Row traders plead with Belfast City Council for help as Boyne Bridge closure cuts business by up to 40%
Three traders from Sandy Row have appeared before Belfast City Council to plead for help before the Boyne Bridge closure destroys their businesses.
Takings are down around 30% to 40%, the three told a council meeting on Monday evening, some stating that they don’t think they’ll be able to survive the 10 more months the road is due to be closed while Translink carry out work connected to the city’s new Grand Central Station.
Customers and staff alike are regularly trapped on gridlocked roads for well over an hour, the traders said, while passing trade has been decimated.
One salon owner said traffic disruption is so bad that she’d been forced to open her business at 7.30am, as her customers now struggle to reach the area on time for appointments.
"With the loss of business and the costs of running the extra hours, we cannot survive the full 10 months,” she added.
Ben Allen, owner of Allen Tours and T A Allen furniture store, said Sandy Row is “a logjam one minute and a ghost town the next”.
“This is worse than Covid,” he stated, pleading with city hall to step in with measures such as free parking for shoppers or rates relief for the area’s struggling traders.
“The problem is that people can’t get to us – but identifying the problem is one thing, a solution is another and that’s what we’re here for.
"We’ve nothing now, we’ve no passing trade. We don’t even have any Christmas lights up.
"Please, please, if there’s something you can do to help us here, that’s what we’re asking for – please.”