The boss of a railway attraction says its finances are on a “knife edge” due to roadworks.
The Bredgar and Wormshill Light Railway has experienced a loss of revenue during water works in the area over the last four years.
Bill Best has run the attraction since 2020. It hosts nine large events a year, runs engineering courses and has a tea room on site.
The heritage railway, which is located off of Swanton Street, is a not-for-profit business that relies on volunteers and most of its trade comes from Sittingbourne and Hollingbourne which helps to fund the maintenance of eleven locomotives.
The 70-year-old says the road closed signs, some of which are miles away from the actual closures, have lost the business between £30,000 and £40,000 just in the last 18 months.
South East Water, which operates water services in the area, has apologised to customers and residents affected by the “vital roadworks to repair burst water mains”.
In a Freedom of Information (FOI) request seen by KentOnline there have been South East Water closures on average 7.6% of the time between the top of Hollingbourne Hill and Bredgar during 2020, 2022, and 2023.
In 2021 there was just one road closure which shut and reopened on the same day. While this year – as of April when the FOI was received – there have been 14 days of closures meaning there has been a closure 4% of the time.
Swanton Street itself was closed for 73 days from 2020 until March this year. In total, there have been 103 days of closures.
The former lawyer says on event days that took place during road closures, he received hundreds of phone calls from people who had pre-paid for tickets asking how to get to the site fearing they would not be able to attend due to the signs.
He points to signs being put out in Bredgar Road, Tunstall, during roadworks in Hollingbourne which began on May 6 and ended on May 25 – more than seven miles away.
Mr Best told KentOnline: “I understand that burst pipes happen and roads get closed for all sorts of reasons, but the volume and frequency of these closures are really awful.
“The signage is often put out miles from where the road is closed, that's if it is closed because very often the signage is there for several days before or several days after the road closure is having a terrible effect on us and other local businesses.
“The signs say road closed ahead but it doesn’t tell you where it is shut.
“I understand that you really want to help HGVs not get caught up, but in doing so, you're deterring people from visiting the local pubs, us and our cafe, and the businesses in the area.
“We're on a knife edge the whole time to try and get money in so if the road signage says it's closed and the access is denied, even though it's technically not closed where we are, our revenue drops off a cliff.
“The result of that is when you're only just making do and just getting by it’s a critical amount of money to lose.
“We've got locomotives, for example, that are being restored with one in particular that’s going to cost a reasonable amount of money. We've had to stop that but even with that, we're struggling to keep things going.
“The water company is starting to be a little bit more thoughtful to us and local businesses about the closures but it's all of these things I have mentioned which makes it hard for us businesses.
“If they would get the repair done or plan it in some way so that the bursts stop happening so the road could then be maintained that would all be great.
“I accept it's probably not going to happen.”
South East Water’s regional network manager, Andy Beston, said: “We’re sorry to customers and residents affected by the vital roadworks to repair burst water mains in Hollingbourne and Bredgar.
“We understand that traffic management can be frustrating, and we ensure we work as quickly and safely as possible to fix leaks while causing minimal disruption.
“We monitor all pipelines along our 9000-mile network to assess, calculate and prioritise when they need replacing. Swanton Street is in our programme for replacement, but we are not yet able to say when this will happen.”
KKC Highways has been approached for comment.
