8:40am Thursday 11th March 2010
By Claire Marshall
HIGHWAYS bosses have come under fire twice in one week for failing to notify companies of road closures that could seriously affect their business.
Traders in Wotton-under-Edge are furious that they were given just a few days' notice of a road closure that started this Monday, just days before Mothering Sunday, one of their busiest times.
Shop owners were hand-delivered letters from Gloucestershire Highways last Friday notifying them that Long Street would be closed from Monday to enable traffic calming measures to be installed.
Despite frantic efforts by Wotton Chamber of Trade to get the work postponed the road was closed on Monday and will remain closed until tomorrow. Shop owner Jacqui Moore said that Wotton had turned into a ghost town.
"Someone has made a massive error," said Mrs Moore, owner of gift shop Mungos. "Our trade has been really hit hard over the last year in Wotton and now a week before Mother's Day they close the road, this is second only to Christmas for some traders.
"This is our livelihoods, no one has thought about that."
The Highways department said normally letters were sent out a week in advance but that the team had been so busy with pothole repair work this was delayed. They did however publish statutory notices about the work in December.
John Roberts, highways manager, said: "We apologise for the inconvenience caused and the disruption that works can have on local businesses. However, we feel this work is too important to postpone simply to give people more advance warning and are conscious of the long-term benefits the work does bring to the area." Wotton Chamber of Trade president Alex Wilkinson said: "The notice given about this work is just not enough.
"If our traders had been given reasonable time then they would have had a chance to consider alternative plans and stock accordingly."
In the same week two businesses in Kingscote, near Dursley, discovered that the main road past their buildings was due to close on March 15 for emergency repair work and they too had not been informed by Highways.
A letter about the closure of the A4135 from March 15 to 28, was handed to bar staff at Hunters Hall by a local resident and from there was passed to the Matara Centre on the opposite side of the road.
Rebecca Stokes, wedding coordinator at Matara, said: "We are really annoyed we weren’t told about this. Luckily we don’t rely on passing trade but we do need time to tell guests travelling to the centre how to get here through the diversion. If we hadn’t seen the letter we still wouldn’t have a clue, we shouldn’t have to find things out second hand."
Highways manager Chris Franklin said: "Although this is short notice it is important for the safety of the travelling public that the works are carried out. Without the urgent closure for repairs, the road would become so damaged that we would have to close it for health and safety reasons, causing longer delays."
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