Arguments Ove r Bans at Cardiff
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STRONG arguments for and against a proposed ban on loading and unloading in five of Cardiff's main shopping streets were put forward at a city council meeting last week. It had originally been suggested that the ban operate for four hours a day, hut, beginning on September 1, it will be imposed from 8.15-9 a.m. and 5-6 p.m.
ClIr. John Edwards blamed private cars for congestion, and Cllr. C. Stuart Hallinan thought that the extent of congestion did not warrant such a drastic measure.
" We say we want Cardiff as a great shopping centre, but this is not the way to get it," he said. "If you pass this resolution you will probably be extending to the city traders, to whom we owe so much, the kiss of Judas."
Ald. J. Lyons stated that Cardiff traders lost no time in criticizing anything the council did to alleviate the traffic problem. In 1956, when Queen Street was made one-way for three months, traders complained continuously that the council were ruining their businesses.
"Yet one firm made more that year than it had ever made before." said Aid. Lyons. Furthermore it was not true that traders provided the council with all their revenue in rates.
"If you look at the figures. you will ...see that they go 50-50 with the private houseowners," he explained. "We have to consider everybody's interests, and whatever we do someone is bound to be inconvenienced.
"If traders have any intelligence at all, it will take them only a very short time to figure a way of readjusting their deliveries," he added,