'It is now almost a year since the pedestrianisation of Sydney Street and Gardner Street was extended to include Sunday and Bank holidays as well as Saturday. Sharon Thomas and Peter Stocker recently held a meeting with Stuart Croucher, Transport Manager at the Council to discuss how the scheme was working and what improvements could be made.
It was generally felt that the increase in pedestrianised hours on a Saturday until 7 p.m. and the introduction of the scheme on Sunday until 5 p.m. had been very successful and reflected the changing shopping habits of our customers. However, there were problems with people leaving cars parked on both streets during the pedestrian hours which ruined the general ambience and caused difficulties when the car owners wanted to leave before the streets reopened. Sydney Street also has the added problem of some car drivers backing up into the street from Gloucester Street.

Mr Croucher said that the Council would ensure that parking wardens would be aware that tickets can be issued to anyone parking in the streets on a Saturday before 7 p.m. and Sunday before 5 p.m. He also commented that he was aware of problems for pedestrians to walk down some of the closed streets due to excessive A boards, tables, chairs etc making it difficult. It may be that the council will consider enforcing a “clear path” either on the pavements of both streets or up the centre of the road.

Technically of course you should have a license from the council to use the area outside your premises when the street is pedestrianised. Peter was concerned about a path being left in the centre of the streets as we have a problem already of cyclists weaving through the shoppers when the roads are closed to traffic, including cyclists.

The situation will be kept under review and we will be asking members for their thoughts at the next members meeting at Komedia on the 10th July.

North Laine Sustainable bag project

On Wednesday 6th June the NLTA committee selected a fair-trade organic cotton bag supplier, Supreme Creations, and chose a design from the many submitted by NL traders for our North Laine bags.
Our aim is to make our customers realise that you cannot continue to receive plastic bags each time you purchase items. British shoppers annually use 20 billion bags .

The NLTA is not banning plastic bags - we are asking our customers to reuse bags. Hopefully if enough traders stop using plastic we may be able to suggest at some stage in the future that we could ban them!

The first batch of cotton bags will arrive in August and we will deliver free samples to all current members. We will then coordinate a larger order of bags, at cost for the autumn.

A copy of the winning design is shown below this article.

The committee would like to thank Joyce and Margaret of Pen to Paper for producing the winning artwork and to other traders for their input. We would also like to thank Eddie Start of Open Spaces for all his hard work and enthusiasm with this project.

North Laine traders welcome Pride

Many Gardner Street traders are joining in pride festivities this year and have applied successfully for an extension of their usual road closure until 10.30pm on Pride day, Saturday 4th August.

By billing the event as "Eat with pride" the traders hope to capitalise on the large number of people in the city on that weekend and raise much needed money to help keep pride a free event.

"Eat with pride" will take place on Saturday 4th August 5pm -10.30pm and Sunday 5th August 11am - 5pm. The street will be decorated with Rainbow flags and shops and cafes will encourage their staff to dress up in prides theme of “Musicals”.

If you would like more information contact Keith Kemp at Pokeno Pies 52 Gardener Street ( 684921). If this event is successful Keith would like to explore ways in which other streets in the North Laine could become involved next year. One idea being is to hold a North Laine window competition on Prides parade theme.

Members summer meeting

The NLTA summer meeting is on the 10th of July at 6pm at the Regent Street bar of Komedia. The agenda will include an update on our sustainable bag project, Pedestrianised streets report, meetings attended and correspondence received, notification of events that our members are invited to and many other North Laine items of interest.

We will be asking for your ideas on how the pedestrian streets can be improved and your thoughts about ideas for a Christmas campaign. All NLTA members are invited and if you are a new trader in North Laine why not pop along and meet us and learn more about who we are and what we do.

The NLTA is made up of traders in North Laine who give their time voluntarily and we are looking for street reps in some streets to help deliver newsletter and information. If you have some time during the week and feel you could help out please contact Sharon Thomas on 604206 or Peter Stocker on 601641.

Kathy Flitton – RSPB in Frederick Place, North Laine writes;

I am currently campaigning for the RSPB, and approaching organisations to see if they are able to do some recycling for us. We are looking to send out boxes or envelopes within which old mobile phones and empty ink cartridges can be collected.

We are able to provide either a box (20cm by 30cm by 20cm) and once 10 or more items are collected, a courier can be sent out to pick them up free of charge or a container which holds envelopes, which can be used to return the items by freepost. Ideally we would like the boxes placed in areas accessible by the most people, staff rooms, on counters for customers etc, or envelopes to be sent out in deliveries to your customers if you are willing.
Please contact me if you are interested in any of these ideas, and let me know if you would like a large box or envelope container. For each envelope or item we receive an average of £1.82, these proceeds will go towards furthering conservation across the UK and worldwide. Fundraising is essential for the RSPB to keep operating as the largest conservation organisation in the UK. I can be contacted on 01273 763625.

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