00:00 It's Paul Conway, I run Farsley Scaffolding based in Bradford.
00:04 The congestion zone, it's destroying my business.
00:09 For me to come here to my own yard, it's £50 a day just to leave the yard in the wagon.
00:16 Any jobs that I have out this way, if I can I'm having to go over the moors to avoid Bradford
00:22 altogether.
00:23 I'm having to avoid all the main roads that were built for wagons and take the country
00:27 roads which is a lot more dangerous but I can't afford, there's no margin for the extra
00:34 £50 or £100 per job I'd have to charge to my customers.
00:39 Before that the council promised me all sorts of help and grants and exemptions but then
00:45 since I put all my applications in for them, everyone's been denied for different reasons.
00:52 I'm a storage yard, my landlord pays the rates but I don't pay the rates.
00:57 I personally live in Leeds, it's not black and white how people run their companies,
01:05 I just don't think they're being fair.
01:08 Well, a lot of people might think it's just hitting my company and I've got an old wagon
01:13 but it is hitting all the residents of Bradford because if they need a re-roof then that's
01:19 it, it's going to cost them £50 for me to come out before I've even put any scaffolding
01:23 up and £50 to come out and take it down again.
01:26 If it's an extension or a new build you could be looking at having to attend sites five
01:32 or six times so you're looking at hundreds of pounds on top of already the scaffolding
01:39 licence fee that the council have put up to £100 a week.
01:43 It's getting harder and harder, I'm paying Bradford Council more money than I'm making.
01:48 I've had so many excuses about why they won't give me an exemption.
01:53 As I said, they said I'm just a storage yard so that doesn't count.
01:56 Well, that's all I needed, storage, I'm a scaffold business.
02:00 They said that my landlord pays rates but not me so even though we're in the same place
02:05 and the rates are being paid only my landlord could get an exemption but I can't as a business.
02:11 And then they say because I live in Leeds but Leeds and Bradford are two cities that
02:17 are touching on borders.
02:20 Companies from Leeds service Bradford all the time and vice versa, companies from Bradford
02:24 service Leeds all the time and Leeds businesses.
02:27 So I can understand if they wanted to charge me to go 30 miles away to another city but
02:32 it's right on my doorstep and I'm being excluded for something that's on my doorstep and I'm
02:37 just having to try my hardest to get round it and logistically work through it.
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