Let's be positive! (From Penarth Times)

Let's be positive!

GLEBE Street project manager and town centre manager, Steve Barrett says that amidst all the controversy surrounding the pedestrianisation scheme opponents should remember this - the council wants the best for Penarth too!

Over the last few months we have received many letters about the much-discussed trial venture.

Steve, who says he was surprised at the level of opposition, says some of the criticism has been unfair.

"Some traders seem to believe that I woke up one morning thinking that today I'm going to close off Glebe Street," he told us.

"Earlier this year the President of the Chamber of Trade wrote to 32 members of his chamber when we were in a position to implement the scheme.

"We had two meetings and at the last one all the traders turned up - so they can't say they didn't know about it."

Steve says the pedestrianisation scheme is the catalyst many Penarthians have been seeking.

"There was a letter in the Penarth Times saying something dramatic needed to be done in the town centre, I can't think of anything more dramatic! The whole idea of the pedestrianisation is to fight against the likes of Tesco and Asda.

"I don't like going to Ferry Road at Christmas and see carol singers there or a fireworks display there on November 5.

"Those events drag people away from Penarth town centre, I want to bring people in."

Steve says he is hoping, with the backing of traders, to start a three-day flower festival soon and implement a single, centralised zebra crossing in the town centre.

"I think you have to look at the bigger picture. Wouldn't it be lovely to think the young and the old could sit down and watch a choir sing in Penarth town centre on a Saturday afternoon?

"We're trying to improve the lot of Penarth and fight back against Tesco."