Tory Councillor Andrew Eade confirmed that New Street had been specifically designed to allow flexibility for traders by the previous Conservative administration and called for a simple verbal agreement to resolve any problems.
Cllr Eade said “The Conservative Administration invested in Wellington’s future and built new civic accommodation, a new library and improved swimming and leisure facilities to increase the number of shoppers in the town. We then levelled and re-paved the whole of New Street to allow traders to use their shop frontages to make the town even more attractive and interesting to shoppers.
“It is clear is that the current Labour administration simply does not understand why and what has been done to keep the town’s economy afloat. To cynically issue threats and clear their frontages only to charge a licence fee to use them again puts an unnecessary financial strain on businesses that could see them close.
“Heaping yet another tier of bureaucracy and costs on shopkeepers when a simple informal agreement is all that is needed is sheer lunacy.”