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news
Track pump outside Isambard's Cycles (via Twitter).jpgCouncil changes its mind about London bike shop’s free pump
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets has had a change of heart and said that a Shoreditch bike shop can have a free pump on the footpath outside after all. However, Isambard’s Cycles says that the whole issue has only served to highlight a larger issue about the attitude of councils to small businesses.
Earlier in the week, we reported how Isambard’s Cycles had been fined for having ‘goods on the highway’ after it provided a track pump so that cyclists could inflate their tyres.
In a further statement on Monday, Tower Hamlets said: “We visited Isambard’s Cycles this morning to make clear that there is no issue with having a pump outside the shop.
“We both agreed to move it away from a lamppost so there was space for the public to get past when people are using it. We have also offered to install a bollard that can double as a bicycle pump.
“While, by law, we have to ensure pavements are clear and safe for pedestrians, it is also very important to support our local businesses.”
The owners of Isambard’s Cycles, Sarah Breese and Timothy James, remain unimpressed.
On the shop’s website, they describe the issue as being “the tip of the iceberg” and say that a broader point has not been addressed.
“The pump issue has stirred emotions more widely than we might have anticipated, because it succinctly illustrates a much larger issue about the attitude of councils, and [Tower Hamlets] in particular, to small business,” they wrote.
“It is hard work doing business in [Tower Hamlets]. I think most local business owners would say the same. Our extortionate business rates are spent setting up hoops and hurdles for us to jump over and through.
“We pay £8,000 a year in rates at present. As it stands, within three years, that figure will have risen to £18,000, and we will have had to close up shop.”
They believe that, “rather than providing a steering and guiding hand, a steadying influence, and benevolent support, the council behave like feudal lords to small businesses’ tenant-farmers – extracting whatever tithes they can without even a pretence of logical or moral justification.”
Nevertheless, they finish by saying: “We’d like to thank everyone for their support and for every tweet, letter and email sent in support of common sense. Without that sort of pressure we’re absolutely certain we would have had to remove the pump, or pay to have it there.”
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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8 comments
The stand out issue for me is the coming increase in rates - a massive hit on a small business with tight overheads. Will the shops be getting 130% more value frop the council for the 130% increase in rates? Unlikely.
£18,000 a year to operate a small unit - how many small, proprietor run shops can absorb that kind of cost? Let alone the flipside of virtuallty no return benefit for the extra expense. This is why small shops (especially bike shops) across the country are disapearing and we get stuck with only the mega shops, sod all choice and having to travel to the back end of nowhere to buy anything. And you wonder why products delivered to homes by Internet shopping is growing... Council won't see £18,000 of rates every year from that will they.
In a further statement on Monday, Tower Hamlets said: “We visited Isambard’s Cycles this morning to make clear that there is no issue with having a pump outside the shop.
“We both agreed to move it away from a lamppost so there was space for the public to get past when people are using it. We have also offered to install a bollard that can double as a bicycle pump.
“While, by law, we have to ensure pavements are clear and safe for pedestrians, it is also very important to support our local businesses.”
Seems a misrepresentation of the issue, it looks like from the council's point of view it was always about things on the pavement.
We have had a similar issue locally with those advert boards shops like to put out.
OK the Council are probably being a bit jobsworth, but they are covering themselves against Personal injury claims and for every cyclist that wants to inflate their tyres, there will be a Parent with a buggy, or a blind person trying to navigate the pavement.
I understand the points that both of you are making here but the council's rationale for raising the issue with Isambaard's was flawed. They stated that "need to apply for a licence to have items on the footpath outside their shop" because this area is "narrow and it is already difficult to get a pram or a wheelchair past the shop". I do not dispute this - the photos make it quite clear that it could be tricky navigating this area with a pram or wheelchair. However, how would a licence rectify this? Clearly it wouldn't and the council has made it quite clear in this shambles that health and safety or ease of navigation, whatever the reason, comes secondary to cash.
I can only assume that there are no cars parked on pavements anywhere in Tower Hamlets and that every cafe with outdoor seating and/or signage has the appropriate licence.
The rationale isn't flawed. They're fining them for not having a licence, this is usually done by the streetscene type people as fining for obstructing the highway is normally a police matter. The council are basically saying that they can't put items on the footway without a licence. The licence application will involve the local highways dept looking at the situation of the footpath and deciding if a licence is appropriate; in this case I suspect not.
You can't put anything on the highway in the UK without a licence from the local authority. This covers skips, scaffolds and anything you might want to put on the footway. Where things aren't causing an obstruction there is a lower chance that the council will turn up, as they mostly react to people complaining to them.
In this case it appears that the guy had a bench and a pump outside his shop, the council showed up and said you can't have those there without a licence. They came back a week later and said you still can't have that pump there, move it or we'll fine you. It seems like the council took every effort not to fine the guy but he just kept pushing it, culminating with that note and going to the media.
Regardless of whether the fine in the original story was justified or not- and the jury of public opinion seems still to be out on that- Tower Hamlets certainly seems to fold very quickly once the press get involved.
FFS. Misinterpreted original story becomes entirely reasonable solution. Ugh.
Seriously?
'Kin hipsters!
This is all a bit fake news, innit?
I'm all for a bit of council bashing when appropriate, but it seems like the pump was the least of their worries, and rather cynically jumped upon by the bike shop to drum up a bit of support.
All rather clearly explained here, with a photo of the shop as it was:
http://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/News_events/News/2017/July_2017/Clarifica...'s_Cycles.aspx
Seems fair cop to me.
The lemonade, on the other hand, was taking the piss.