Nottingham City Council considers whether to renew loading permit for local florist

Jul 21

Renewal of loading permit being considered after 30 years trading.

Once again a local florist is having to do battle with Nottingham City Council over loading restrictions outside his business premises. The business has been told by a council official that a decision to renew their loading permits, which expired earlier in July, will have to wait until a department manager returns from holiday.

In the meantime they have been requested to use the single loading bay at end of the street, over 300 feet away, which is in constant use by other delivery vehicles.

This latest debacle comes only 3 months after they were refused permission to have local tradesman park outside of the shop to undertake repairs to the building after the shop was broken into twice in March 2010.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/8627015.stm

Managing Director, Brian Skelhorn, said “It makes you wonder whether the local council want us to remain in business” “It’s difficult enough trading through the current recession, without hassle like this” – we really feel that we are being victimised.”
It is totally impractical to use the loading bay – our vans deliver all day every day, and return to the shop several times to reload. Some orders have to de delivered at certain times, funeral tributes for example – we can’t keep driving round the block on the vain hope that the loading bay is empty. “I can’t understand it – we’ve been trading from these premises since 1981, and have always used the area at the front of the shop to load – Ever since the Clear Zone was created we’ve had nothing but trouble.

“The civil enforcement officers (CEOs) are anything but civil – they cannot be reasoned with and have very little common sence – and now they’ve realised our permits have expired it has been open season – we’ve already been issued with one ticket, and have been threatened with further tickets if we continue to load outside of the shop.”

Knowing that the local council also use CCTV to spot offending vehicles we have no chance – once we’re caught on camera the vultures descend on us for easy pickings.

Brian, who’ll be 64 next year and still works 12 hours a day 6 days a week continued… “It’s causing me a significant amount of worry….…if we can’t make the deliveries then I fear that the council are threatening the viability of the business and the jobs and livelihoods of my staff.

We’re planning a FACEBOOK group and hope that we can campaign to get the council to change their mind ….we’re hoping to get a lot of support from our existing customers too.

Notes to Editors
Andersons of Nottingham is a florist and gift delivery business based in Nottingham and has been trading from their King Street premises since 1981. Further details of the service and history of the business can be found at www.flowers.uk.net

Contacts
Brian Skelhorn, A A Andersons of Nottingham, 10 King Street, Nottingham NG1 2AS
Tel: 0115 941 2612

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