MP claims pedestrianisation is reason for city centre footfall decline

Don Valley MP Nick Fletcher shared a video on Thursday (28 September) discussing how to improve footfall in Doncaster’s city centre.

He attributed a drop in the number of people visiting to policy implemented by Doncaster Council, including the pedestrianisation of popular retail streets.

Mr Fletcher said: “When I was a kid, this high street was absolutely rammed, the reason why that was happening was because the buses used to come up and down, the cars used to come up and down, people used to see new shops that had opened, it was literally buzzing all the time.

“Now people say it’s changed because of Amazon. I don’t think that’s true. I think the reason why it’s changed is because they pedestrianised everything.

“Now, less and less people are coming to Doncaster. But it can be changed, it can be turned around. This is a fantastic city. It could be amazing. It should be amazing.

“We need to bring back free parking, we need to let the cars come through the centre again, we need to make sure the buses terminate at different places all over Doncaster, and we need a mayor to come to the town centre and actually tell people to come and shop here, and actually come and see the place, come and spend their money.”

Mr Fletcher has repeatedly criticised urban planning policies, and what he calls “the war on the car”.

Earlier this month, he claimed that the rollout of a £1.6 million cycle lane scheme had turned the city centre into a “ghost town”.

Mayor of Doncaster Ros Jones has said: “Virtually all government transport funds and even the majority of regeneration funds have criteria that stipulate they must support a ‘modal shift’, from cars to Active Travel and Public Transport. These funds include Levelling Up Fund, City Region Sustainable Transport Fund and Transforming Cities Fund to name but a few.

“Government Funding for highways repairs in Doncaster are £5million per year (the same as it was in 2010), whereas we currently receive roughly £15million per year from Government for ‘Active Travel’ including walking and cycling.”