'People will go elsewhere if they get rid of this...it's going to cost us': Worry over plans for city centre square

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Some of Manchester’s trendiest and most well-known independent businesses are railing against a plan to pedestrianise a city centre square — because it doesn’t go far enough.

The council has announced that three-quarters of Stevenson Square in the Northern Quarter will be pedestrianised permanently.

The entire area has been closed off to motor traffic since 2020. Since then, Stevenson Square has become an oasis of café culture, with multiple bars and restaurants making use of outside space with new tables and chairs.

Now, however, some of those firms will be losing their access to outside seating and the area’s longest-running business is also going to suffer. READ MORE: 'Everyone's talking about this south Manchester restaurant, but when I went the service was all over the place' “I would like to have a direct conversation with the people who have made the decision,” Mark Aldous, who owns the Fred Aldous art supply store, told the MEN . “The people that are ultimately paying the price are the businesses on the front that are just trying to run. “You just want to see the full square pedestrianised and all businesses that front onto it given an even space.” Fred Aldous started out in 1886 but has been in its current premises since 1966.