Fears building work will put Leeds shoppers off again

Business owners have shared concerns about their futures ahead of construction work restarting on a Leeds city centre shopping street.

The demolition and rebuild of the former House of Fraser building on Central Road near Briggate into student flats and retail units has been ongoing since 2023.

Independent businesses on the road previously reported a decline in trade due to a lack of footfall during building and roadworks, with one cafe closing earlier this year.

Leeds City Council said it was not responsible for the project but added it was "very close to completion", with the final pavement resurfacing works taking place in January.

Saroop Sangha and Jasbir Lalarea recently opened coffee and wine shop Vinyl Grounds, but say they are feeling "massively worried" about their visibility.

"We've already had a struggle trying to bring awareness of our existence in the street, which has been made harder by the fact we've noticed footfall has been a lot lower than it used to be," Ms Sangha said.

"There's no parking on the road, so businesses haven't been able to load - it has been really difficult as there's no other access."

She added that new businesses on the street could "bring life back into this road", however the "council has chosen to rip up the road again".

Khalid Morton, of Travelling Man Leeds, said footfall had increased again since the road had reopened for the festive period.

However, the store manager of the graphic novel and board game shop has doubts over whether this will continue when work starts again in January.

"Having the road open makes a massive difference and we're making the most of that during the Christmas trade," he said.

"We're just hoping that we can follow that through when they do finish off the roadworks in January."

He added: "It's been a difficult couple of years - not only just for us trading, but also seeing our neighbours close.

"They are people who have worked so hard on their businesses for many years."

Shush Interiors Leeds recently moved to the nearby Corn Exchange from Central Road.

Solomon Easer, from the furniture shop, said: "When you're demolishing a building there's bound to be huge disruption.

"Leeds City Council should have offered businesses more help and offered monetary compensation."

La Min, from the long-established Little Tokyo restaurant, said the work had taken "longer than they said", but added: "I think having new businesses come in has helped to bring back customers."

A council spokesperson said they have had "constant dialogue" with businesses along the road and developers Dukelease.

"The council has worked with the developer to ensure that construction works were removed from Central Road over the key Christmas period, but this does mean the work will need to restart in early January for a few more weeks until the work is complete," they said.

"We are pleased that new businesses have opened on Central Road in recent weeks and we remain keen to support them where we can as the scheme draws to a close."

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