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Whitecross Street: the latest work is the final phase of a £350,000 resurfacing programme |
Street repairs drive business away, say angry shopkeepers
Clamour for compensation as contractors return to dig up pavements
SHOPKEEPERS are demanding compensation for disruption caused by the latest repairs to their street.
The council has been accused of needlessly “blockading” the Barbican end of Whitecross Street so the pavement can be resurfaced.
Mina Kumar, at Barbican Newsagents, said: “They dig up the pavement, kill our business and in six months the same thing happens again. These barriers have come up, blocking access to our shops and nobody is even doing any work. .
“Me and my husband have had this shop for over 20 years and I would honestly say it’s in a worse state now than it has ever been.”
Andrew Constantinou fears his hairdressing business, Nicholas George, may fold unless the work stops. “I can’t understand why they don’t use slabs they can replace every time they need to do work to the pavement,” he said.
“We have counted 17 statutory services who will be able to dig it up again and again so not only will it drain our business but it will also look as patchy as ever.
“A lot of my clients are City workers who pop in off the street in their lunch hour. This has completely dried up and what makes it worse is that nothing is even happening. The council should pay because we are completely cut off.”
The work, which began last week, is the final phase of a £350,000 resurfacing programme. When completed in April, the street will have received more than £1 million worth of investment since the beginning of 2006.
Councillor Lucy Watt, Lib Dem executive member for environment, said: “We’ve got new rules which mean utility companies can’t dig up a street or pavement for a year after we’ve completed major work like this, unless it’s a real emergency.
“Several funding organisations have been involved, which is why it’s taken some time to get things going, but we believe the end result will be well worth the wait. If any businesses do have specific concerns about disruption, we promise to listen carefully to their concerns.” |
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