Traders fear the planned closure of public toilets in a beleaguered Cardiff shopping centre will have a "disastrous" impact on their businesses. The toilets in Queens Arcade are due to permanently shut on May 14 after the loss-making complex was placed in property receivership.
Heriberto De La Cruz Diaz, who owns the centre's Medusa Barber shop, has started a petition calling for the decision to be reversed. In one day 10 traders have added their names to the campaign, which argues the closure would hit footfall as well as hampering elderly and disabled shoppers. Mr Diaz, 37, believes the move is symptomatic of a wider failure to "welcome" people into Queens Arcade.
In February it was announced that Queens Arcade was in receivership after the past decade saw net operating income drop from more than £3million a year to an annual deficit in the hundred of thousands of pounds. Asset manager Addington Capital has now told WalesOnline the £100,000 annual cost of running the toilets "cannot be sustained" with so many empty units. "We recognise that the WCs are well used, but there are alternatives in the St David's centre and we do not believe that this closure will stop shoppers coming to shop in the Queens Arcade and Cardiff generally," said its spokesman.
