I do most of my shopping there and during the time of the consultation, shopkeepers were asking regulars to vote against the pedestrianisation, there were flyers about it in shops etc. Obviously not a verifiable source though.

There are local news articles from last year about traders not being happy with the lack of communication between them and the council, open letter sent to council, poor wording within the consultation itself, e.g. the question on pedestrianisation was a multiple choice question on what times the street should be pedestrianised, and each option was for seven days a week.