Last month, the Portadown Times reported that business owners were up in arms about elements of a £5.2 million public realm scheme designed to 'revitalise' a number of streets in Portadown with wider footpaths, trees, improved lighting and public art works.
Plans to remove 11 car parking spaces in Church Street and Mandeville Street prompted traders to join forces to oppose the move in a campaign spearheaded by Sam MacNally, owner of music store Mac's Music.
Subsequently, a petition established by the traders prompted the council to address their concerns at a Project Steering Group meeting held last Friday which was attended by Portadown 2000, representatives from the Department for Social Development, the Roads Service, NI Water, the Planning Service and Translink.
However, it was decided that plans for the scheme, which is due to begin in the autumn, should proceed unaltered.
The decision comes as town centre businesses received an information pack this week, detailing the public realm scheme plans which were used for the public consultation in July 2007 – although a number of amendments have been made since then.
It also outlines the benefits of the scheme, by stating; "(The scheme] is specifically designed to get people to walk through the town and thus increase the chances of impluse buying. It will also greatly increase the attractiveness and aesthetics of the town".
updated
A spokeswoman for Craigavon Borough Council told the Portadown Times that there were also plans in place to keep business owners "updated on a daily basis" during construction work. "Owners will be informed beforehand if work is to be carried out and there is scope for the business owner to say if they would rather have it carried out at a different time."
She continued, "There will also be a person designated on site whom the traders can speak to."
However, Mr McNally has criticised the council for acting "too little, too late". "We should have been given this information directly when the scheme had gone out to public consultation two years ago and we had hoped that our concerns would have been taken into consideration at the Steering Group meeting," he said.
The business owner claimed traders he had spoken were prepared to "continue fighting" to have the plans changed. "We've nothing against the scheme in principle but we don't want to lose our car park spaces as it could harm business and we've also had so many customers express their concern at having the parking spaces removed.
"I expect that once all the traders have sat down and had a look at the information pack, more will oppose the plans," he explained.
Mr McNally urged fellow town centre traders to carry a petition in their stores. "I'm also planning to organise a meeting with all the traders who oppose the plans and see what avenues are availabl