Traders have claimed their takings have plummeted since their road was closed because of sewer works.

St George's Road in Kemp Town, Brighton, was initially to be closed for one week while workmen connected a sewer to a new block of flats but the £21,000 works are now into their second week.

Ataur Rahman, owner of Indian restaurant Kemp Spice, said takings were down by a quarter because there was no passing trade from motorists and few people were walking along the pathway.

He said: "This road block is killing my business. Sometimes we don't even get our deliveries because there are builders' vans both sides of the road block.

"It's just a nightmare. At the weekend, no one was working on the sewer but the road was still closed. If it was such an important job, why didn't the workmen continue at the weekend to finish it off as quickly as possible?"

Mahendra Patel, owner of Happy Shopper, said: "If they have to close the road for a third week, it will be absolutely devastating for us.

"The workmen are too slow. On Monday, there was no one doing anything because they didn't have a specialist driver for the digger."

No one from Portslade-based J Davies Building Ltd, the company connecting the sewer, was available for comment. It has issued a notice to traders that the works will finish tomorrow.

The development of six one-bedroom flats, two two-bedroom penthouses and two live-work units is being built by Brighton-based BN Trends Living Space.

Director Jay Robert said he was sorry for any inconvenience caused to traders.

He said: "I'm as anxious for this sewer to get finished as the traders. I understand problems have arisen because the company has to dig an exceptionally long way down and tunnel through.

"The sooner it gets done, the sooner we can finish the building and reinstate the pavement so everyone can resume normal life down that road. We were supposed to finish 12 weeks ago but hopefully we will finish by the end of the month."

Sheila Patel, who runs BTC Newsagent, said trade was down by 50 per cent, partly due to fencing erected outside the new development.

She said: "When the road is open, no one can see cars coming around the fencing. Customers tell me they're scared they might be run over."

The delayed road works are not the first time people living in this part of Brighton have suffered problems on their streets.

In April, The Argus reported how residents of Kemp Town had to keep moving their cars as parking bays had to be repainted after they were tarmacked over.

Four weeks earlier, people living in White Street had the same problem as freshly painted parking bays were also mistakenly tarmacked.

Thursday, August 11, 2005