Abi Wakelam, owner of Castle Crafts, Fountain Arcade, Dudley is devastated as she explains why she is having to close her shop

Express & Star

Abi Wakelam, owner of Castle Crafts, Fountain Arcade, Dudley is devastated as she explains why she is having to close her shop.

Transcript

00:00okay abby so you're the you're the owner of castle crafts here in fountain arcade in dudley

00:06um and you're closing aren't you yeah 23rd of december right just explain what's going on and

00:11what what made you come to that um there's a lot of things that i think the town's facing that

00:18the council don't really realize that it's affecting businesses the way that it is so

00:23the two three hour parking is something that i've been quite vocal about i feel like they need to

00:28bring that back right um mainly because it's just fair to the businesses while there's so much going

00:34on in the town no no bus station um with obviously the road closures for the tram line so it would just

00:40be nice if the council could give us that free two hour parking just while the town's so yeah

00:47in upheaval um i mean would that make a difference to you now or would that change your mind about

00:53clothes i'd have to see because obviously there's like quite a few things that like the shop's

00:58facing but mine a lot is being online sales but yeah for footfall and things like that then yeah

01:05definitely it would change my mind because that was the reason i came in back into the town in the

01:10first place um on the you know i'd stopped shopping in dudley myself started again when the two three

01:17hour parking was there saw how the town was kind of picking up a bit um asked a few of the businesses

01:24and that said that it was a positive thing yeah so that's why i then started to look into coming back

01:29into the town but i've emailed the council about it and they don't seem to have any plans to check to

01:38bring it back so that's my main decision have your customers kind of said anything yeah all of the time

01:43i'm constantly asking my customers everybody who knows me knows i like to talk a lot so i'm constantly

01:48asking why they don't come to the town as much um we've got people from a lot of my customers have

01:55also got memberships with the leisure center they're cancelling that because they don't want to keep

02:00paying 15 pound a week to obviously go to the leisure center and park um but yeah it's just

02:09it's a big thing obviously like it it's only going to be a positive to provide free parking for a town

02:16it's not a negative wasn't a negative for them but yeah for us it's a life line now and you know

02:22holland and barrett have short body care there's a lot going and if they can't look at that and see

02:30that maybe that's one of the reasons why and for the good of the town bring the parking back just for

02:37a while just while all the work's going on then i don't see everything coming together which i don't

02:44want to go but i also i've got to make a living i've got it i can't be putting my own money into

02:52it which is what i'm doing at the moment um which is a shame because i'm proud to be from dudley

02:58i love dudley i think it deserves so much better i think we've got a lot of positives that are just

03:03completely ignored oh we've got some beautiful architecture the zoo the castle black country museum

03:10that you know what's the point of all these positives when there's going to be no shops what are you

03:15going to do after this so i've got a business before and um just a cleaning company so i didn't

03:24as i get older i'm struggling with doing it a bit more so i wanted to do this just because this is what

03:30i love um but yeah i've got to go with that again and it's just sad because i want i want i like being

03:40the wall lady i like being like oh it's the wall lady from dudley and like i like that and again i

03:47think elderly people need shops more than we do because that's sometimes their only form of communicating

03:54with people so that's another positive for you kind of loses yeah like and some especially with these

04:02um people like to see people like to see things they like to check the color they like to so it's

04:08it is some a shop that like you like to go to a show more than ordering it online like everything

04:14i've got a lot competition online is one another one of the reasons right but again if i'd got in a

04:21football online wouldn't matter for me so yeah what do you think the future for dudley is you know

04:28the tram line and nothing else really yeah a tram line that goes into a town that's lost everything

04:34just to get the tram line which i've already got people coming in and saying oh i've started going

04:38to this town um because there's more there the market's better so i'll just get the tram from dudley

04:45to there now but so so like we're all worried now thinking well what was supposed to be a positive

04:50and bring people in has now taken so long and taken so many people away from the town that are they

04:55going to get the tram line to these other towns now and give up on dudley completely which i hope they don't

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