FREMANTLE mayor Ben Lawver has defended the city’s response to the North Fremantle bridge closure, after a café owner told the Herald support had fallen short “NF SOS,” Herald, March 21).

Mr Lawver said he had visited and spoken directly with traders.

“So I’ve gone to North Fremantle specifically three times, especially on that strip, and checked in with businesses including Bruce Town, and just asking general questions, how are things going?” he said.

“I’ve gone into South Terrace and asked how things have been affected. Rang up a few other businesses about the bridge that rely on, like deliveries and stuff.”

He said only one business had reported a downturn.

“There was one business that I’ve spoken with on South Terrace. They’ve noticed a drop, and so we’re working with them to make sure that they’re in our second round of grant applications to do more stuff.”

“I think everyone is as expected, some impact, right? I mean, we’ve known about this for a little while.”

Others, he said, were holding up.

He said the impression he was given in North Freo was that locals had rallied around businesses to help them get through.

“The times that I’ve been there, it’s actually been pretty busy.”

Mr Lawver said Main Road’s detours seemed to be working relatively smoothly, and it’s taken him just four minutes or so to get from Freo’s CBD to North Fremantle.

“The mitigation stuff they put in place seems to largely be working.”

He says there have been snarls around Thompson Road and the City had put up “local only” signs, and if that didn’t work they may consider closing one end of the street.

“Obviously, we’re still trying to deal with the few of the impacts; we’ve seen an increase in freight trucks on local roads and raised that with Main Roads last week, and it’s noticeably less now.”

The City of Fremantle told the Herald it had rolled out grants, added extra cleaning, held meetings with traders and a marketing push to support North Fremantle businesses during the disruption.