Parking bay blues

Two business owners in Harding Street are blaming municipal staff for a decline in business.

Jopie Schoeman and Salomè de Wet claimed the steady decline in clientèle was because municipal staff were parking their vehicles in parking bays in front of their business premises.

They said their customers couldn’t find parking spots and were compelled to take their business elsewhere. “We have been struggling since 2009 with this problem and we need more parking space!” exclaimed Mr Schoeman.

Apart from businesses bleeding dry due to the lack of public parking, Mrs de Wet claimed municipal staff were extremely rude if approached. “One woman said I should go away and called me an ugly woman,” she said indignantly.

Business owners said finding a parking bay was no issue when the staff had either gone home or were on lunch.

They continued that ample parking was available for municipal staff at Kenyon Arcade, and the municipality should take steps to ensure staff used the necessary parking bays allocated to them.

The municipality’s communication department was contacted for comment on January 22, but none was forthcoming at the time of going to print.