CALLS have been made for “decisive action” to tackle ongoing issues with pavement seating in Lichfield city centre.
Members of the regulatory and licensing committee backed enforcement of a rule requiring a 1,500mm gap between any outdoor furniture and the road.
But businesses have argued that some streets where vehicles are restricted – such as Bird Street – means that the gap already exists.
Cllr Doug Pullen, leader of Lichfield District Council, had asked the committee to review the enforcement of the 1,500mm rule at the meeting this week. He has previously said the restrictions were putting the city’s “cafe culture” at risk.
But the committee said concerns with the hybrid pedestrianisation scheme meant that traffic and pedestrians could still come into conflict, despite new electronic barriers being installed.
As a result, they said the restrictions on outdoor seating should remain – and should be enforced.
But Lichfield MP Dave Robertson has now called for an “end to political point-scoring” and urged leaders to take a more flexible approach to find a solution that balances the needs of businesses and residents.
He said:
“The message from the public is clear—Lichfield residents and visitors overwhelmingly support outdoor seating, and yet the council’s weak policies continue to stand in the way of improvements.
“The current confusion over pedestrianisation serves no one, creating barriers for businesses and restricting public enjoyment of our city.
“It’s time for the council to act and fix this mess. I have written to the leader and chief executive of Lichfield District Council urging them to act.”
Business owners have also called on the local authority to act in support of the city centre.
Andrew Pease, owner of Melbourne Cafe, said:
“As a small business owner there are a lot of headwinds we are fighting against – this shouldn’t be one of them.
“We look to the council to be collaborative and to work with businesses in the city centre. From very early we have been asking the council to consider each street, business and situation on its merits to make Lichfield’s high streets a vibrant place that people enjoy being and hopefully this will happen in the coming months.
“We appreciate both our MP Dave Robertson and council leader Cllr Doug Pullen engaging with us to understand the challenges it presents in a truly non-political dialogue and hope for this to continue.”
Good Heavens! How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Confirms my suspicions that local councillors are petty, matchbox dictators who have no interest in the best interests of Lichfield! Someone please bang some heads together!
Well, I never thought I would ever say this of a Labour MP, but… well done Dave! Let’s get some sense back into play here, protect our valuable businesses and honour the views of (arguably the majority) who support outdoor seating and our precious café culture!
Critical stuff, good to see they are fully focused on sorting out this blight on Lichfield. I’m sure we will all sleep easier on our beds when someone finally makes a decision
Yeah, can’t see a way to walk around those tables at all. I’ve always fallen over tables and chairs. Major issue. Not.
Why don’t lichfield Council get there act together and support our local businesses 😤 and stop arguing over a little bit of seating area outside of their business 🤔 we need our local bar’s and cafés etc to keep lichfield alive we need as many visitors as we can to help lichfield economy otherwise we will be bankrupt like Birmingham 👍 lichfield Council never moan about new houses being built on green belt area’s and they do not tell new housing estates that you have to build doctor surgery’s to take loads of pressure of our only one at Greenhill, and loads of traffic congestion in and out of lichfield, so what harm are they doing over a few bloody seats get to grips lichfield Council don’t forget we vote all you in otherwise you will be out 🤔
Members of the regulatory and licensing committee Get a life !! Businesses are struggling enough without you silly idiots creating and issue about nothing, job creation.
There’s no one to be seen. Must have known he was coming.
It’s amusing that Dave Robertson has written to the council, but can’t respond to numerous letters from councillors and constituents. He barely shows up for District Council meetings, it’s being noticed, so he decides to appear in an article over some outdoor seating. The conditions of licenses are dictated by the Business and Planning Act 2020, Dave Robertson writing a letter and actually doing something for the first time since being elected isn’t going to change the law.
We never hear from Dave Robertson as a councillor anymore. Is this really an issue for our MP to be involved in when there is clearly a massive backlog of constituents requests or correspondence going unanswered.
Last thing this long winded and over thought issues needs is the MP getting involved. Quite frankly if the local councillors can’t sort this issues themselves (and it appears they can’t by the pigs ear they’ve made of it) then what good is the MP going to do? Isn’t this just a yes or no closed question for councillors to ask themselves? What is it that’s stopping them make a decision? Surely we deserve better councillors than this and an MP who surely must have better things to be doing with his time! Not impressed.
This is getting ridiculous. A few days ago the paper reported it had all been resolved (correctly in my view). If the MP doesn’t like the law, surely he should be raising it in parliament. The businesses need to shut up and get on with following what they’ve been told to do. The council and the MP should have far more important things to be dealing with. Bird St in particular has been much easier to navigate on foot over the past few months, it even looks better.