ANGRY Bridgnorth traders fear loss of trade as they become marooned by a glut of roadworks surrounding the town next month. High Street florist Derek Onions said that they might just as well be working “on an island.”
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“When the Chamber of Commerce was running it would not have allowed all this to happen at the same time in the summer. I don’t know what the councillors are doing by not getting it phased – we may as well be on an island,” he said.
Former Chamber chairman Wayne Vernon added that the inconvenience was a “double whammy.”
“The Severn Valley Railway was closed last year because of flooding, which reduced the number of visitors coming into town. Now these works are all going on at the same time which will reduce trade, which is the last thing traders want in the current climate.
“You would have thought the work would have been organised so that it is not all happening at once – the powers that be don’t consider the traders,” he said.
Scott Shakespeare of Shakespeare’s hardware shop in Listley Street, said he could not see the logic of all the work being done at the same time. He said it was too early to guage the effect of the Listley Street closure on trade.
The list of roadworks and closures includes:
* The A442 Telford road at Fort Pendlestone and High Rock will be closed from September 8 to 12 from 9.30am-4pm. During these times, Jacobs Engineering UK Ltd will be combining a two-yearly rock inspection with building a 30 metre-long catch fence at Pendlestone to protect motorists.
Outside the peak hours and for a further fortnight the road will be reduced to one lane with 24 hour traffic signals in place, operated manually by a specialist traffic manager. Diversions will be in place, but controlled access for pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders will remain.
* The B4555 Highley road at the Cankhorn, near Knowle Sands, will also close from September 8, for eight weeks while Severn Trent Water replace a foul sewer. The work had originally been scheduled to start during the summer holidays, but was postponed because of the effect on tourism and representations from parish councils.
* Listley Street is closed until September 14 for resurfacing and kerbing work, but access is being maintained to the shops and signs advertise businesses open as usual.
* Work is continuing on building the Whitburn Street relief road with some car parking lost and temporary traffic lights in operation.
* The National Grid continues its £5m project to replace many of the town’s old metal gas pipes with more durable plastic ones. To minimise disruption, the new pipes are being pushed through the old ones where possible.
Traffic lights are in operation in Innage Lane and work is also ongoing in Wenlock Road. But National Grid revealed this week that the £5 million scheme is well ahead of schedule and could be finished by February, instead of the previous May forecast.
