Businesses who claim to have lost tens of thousands of pounds in trade due to a three-month road closure say local politicians “weren’t interested” in their plight.
The A228 Frindsbury Hill in Strood reopened earlier than expected today (June 14) after being closed for 14 weeks.
But while Medway Council has been quick to praise the early finish, traders at the sharp end of the road closure’s impact have blasted the lack of communication from politicians of all stripes, saying “no-one wants to take responsibility for it”.
The road had been closed in both directions from the Sans Pareil roundabout to allow construction works to be completed on the entrance to the new Maritime Academy which is due to open to students in September.
It was due to reopen on June 21, but the authority announced on June 12 the work would be completed sooner and the road would reopen ahead of schedule
And while the predicted congestion wasn’t as bad as motorists had expected and some politicians had warned, some businesses affected say they’ll never fully recover and, at times, thought they wouldn’t survive.
Adam Stone, manager of Denis Hills Quality Butchers, noticed a decline in footfall immediately once the roadworks began and wasn’t sure the shop would make it through.
He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “It’s been really hard. A lot of people have said they have not made the effort due to the road closures - it’s an inconvenience, especially if people have got just an hour to do their shopping, they have not got time to be driving around all these diversions to get here.
“In all honesty I thought to myself ‘is this shop going to be standing in three months time?’ because my bills still need to be paid.
“I’ve had no-one from Medway Council in to apologise about it or give me advice on how I can claim back some of the money that I’ve lost because of this.
“They had plenty of other options for places to build this school, but they didn’t make those choices and I’m paying the price.”
The butcher says when the roadworks first came in his business was losing approximately £400 worth of trade per day - although things got a little better when the council put signs at the end of the road to let people know the traders were still open.
He added the roadworks on Frindsbury Hill weren’t his only problem as his delivery drivers were getting stuck across Medway in traffic for up to an hour, two or three times a week.
However, Mr Stone said he isn’t expecting compensation because of the difficult financial state the authority finds itself in.
Ben Chell, landlord of the Sans Pareil pub which had the roadworks directly in front of it, estimates he’s lost around £10,000 over the 14 weeks.
The publican said he couldn’t expect any help from the council or local politicians, saying they “weren’t interested” and were more focused on scoring political points.
Mr Chell said: “Over three months we probably lost the best part of £10,000 due to the closure.
“I thought ahead straight away, when I found out it was closing I got in loads of do’s and gigs, which I’m quite lucky I can do, parties, etc, so we will claw it back - but that’s not the point.
“No-one wants to take responsibility for it. Labour blaming Tories, Tories blaming Labour.
“They’re not interested, no-one let us know anything, no-one let us know it was finishing early.
“The only people who did were the builders themselves.
“People have asked me how I’ve survived with it out there, but we’ve done okay - it’s not been the end of the world but it’s definitely not been good.
“We’ve got a brand new beer garden which thankfully has kept us busy, so it’s not all negative, but as for the council and the politicians - not interested at all.”
He added: “The boys out there, the builders, have worked hard - they could’ve worked weekends and bank holidays, had other teams or something - but they have worked hard and it’s not because of the council or the politicians this is done early, it’s because of their grafting.”
Mr Chell says he’s contacted the council’s legal team with regards to compensation but they have passed him onto the Department for Transport.
“If they’ve finished a week early, that means they’ve saved a lot of money, which should come our way,” he added.
“It should be distributed between all the businesses that have been affected.”
At the regeneration, culture and environment overview and scrutiny committee on June 13 a petition to mitigate the effects of the Frindsbury Hill roadworks was considered, with officers saying the petitioner had accepted the response.
In reply to the petition, the report said: “The decision to close Frindsbury Hill was not one which was taken lightly.
“Lengthy and frequent meetings took place with council officers and the developer for the school to consider all potential traffic management options so that the school could successfully open in September 2024.
“The closure was, in the view of the council, the only viable option as it offered the shortest possible timeframe of disruption.
“Officers are holding weekly progress meetings with the developer, focusing on ensuring the highway works are carried out as quickly as possible so that the closure can be removed, and the road re-opened.
“The developer is also able to utilise weekend working if they can divert resources to also try to bring this project in ahead of time.
“Officers will continue to mitigate the situation by working closely with the developer and education colleagues to try and re-open the road at the earliest opportunity.”
However, no mention of any possible mitigation to the businesses on Frindsbury Hill was made in the report and the general rule is that there is no compensation if a business is affected by road works.
According to the current guidelines issued by the House of Commons: “Compensation is a complicated subject and any individual whose business is affected is strongly recommended to consult a legal professional to advise on their rights and who could also act on their behalf in negotiations. “
“Successive governments have taken the view that businesses should not have the right in law to any particular given level of passing trade, and that traders must take the risk of loss due to temporary disruption of traffic flows along with all the other various risks of running a business.”
Frindsbury Hill is now clear of roadworks but some remaining work will be done on Tuesday, July 2 to Friday, July 5 under temporary traffic lights between 8pm and 5am, to install a new pedestrian crossing.
A number of bus diversions were also put in place during the works.
Bus operators have been informed of the road reopening, and services will return to normal from tomorrow (June 15).
