Call for new route to Stourbridge shops (From Stourbridge News)

Call for new route to Stourbridge shops

3:57pm Wednesday 30th September 2009

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STOURBRIDGE Township Councillors are calling for an innovative change in the town centre to give traders a boost.

As the Aldi store development on New Road nears completion, members of the township council say the time is right to open a new entrance from the site into the main shopping area.

The organisation is calling for action to convert an empty Ryemarket shop unit into a walkway which would allow access from Aldi, on the site of the former B&Q store, to the centre.

At a meeting on Thursday September 10, Township Councillors voted to support a proposal to lobby Rymarket and Aldi bosses, plus Dudley Council, for their support to develop the scheme.

Stourbridge Township Council clerk, John Shepherd, said: “Ours is an extremely popular proposal, it is badly needed and will be very well accepted by the residents of Stourbridge.

“We have approached a cross section of persons representative of our town plus shoppers and pedestrians there has been a 100 per cent acceptance.”

Dudley Council cabinet member for regeneration, cllr Les Jones, is backing the plan which he says will encourage shoppers to travel in both directions, bringing business to Aldi and the Ryemarket’s shops.

Cllr Jones said: “I am absolutely all for it, I can’t see how it could be a bad thing for The Ryemarket or Aldi.

“Footfall is what it’s all about and it will bring Aldi into the town centre with better access both ways.”

The proposal is set to feature at a public meeting to discuss regeneration in the town at St Thomas’s Church, Market Street, Stourbridge, on Friday October 16.

The regeneration summit, organised by Stourbridge MP Lynda Waltho, is set to run from 7.30pm to 9pm.

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