Sheffield Council chiefs to debate petition of all day bus lane plan for Ecclesall Road and Abbeydale Road

The petition against the plans, which include 12 hour bus lanes on Ecclesall Road and Abbeydale Road, gained more than 7,500 signatures and were presented to Sheffield Council’s full meeting this afternoon.

Prior to this petition being presented, which triggered a debate because it passed the 5,000 signature threshold, three other petitions against proposed parking restrictions on these roads were also presented.

The largest petition was presented by Nasar Raoof, Banner Cross postmaster, who said: "We are angry for a number of reasons. Businesses like mine will have to close their doors.

"As if we’ve not got the financial pressures of our children and our young people to deal with. Now we are having to deal with the incompetency and the ludicrous butchering and murder of local businesses by the Green Party and the Green councillor, Douglas Johnson.

"Do our voices mean anything? People are telling you this is a bad idea for businesses but yet the council has done no business impact assessment, no equality impact assessment, nothing to speak to disabled people.

“We have only got two vibrant streets in the city that are trading, Abbeydale Road and Ecclesall Road. Please speak up and protect them. If my business flops, that’s it for me and that’s the livelihood of my children.”

Coun Douglas Johnson said: “There is always a danger that people’s anger about what might happen takes over. There’s a lot to be said for installing proper bus routes. Many people where I live don’t have cars and they rely on buses. It is something to balance out. When we have got some more information maybe we’ll be able to make a more informed decision.

"I’m not trying to trivialise what you’re saying but there’s no need to get quite so overblown about it.”

Liberal Democrat Councillor Shaffaq Mohammed said: “I want to apologise for the comments of Councillor Johnson, totally insensitive.

"We are talking about predominantly independent shops that could go down. I don’t want to experiment with your livelihood.

"If this had come to a cabinet meeting where I was at, I would have said go away and do some more work on it.”

The petition will now be considered by the executive which is made up of three Green Party and seven Labour Party councillors.