Brighton roadworks drive health staff crazy (From The Argus)

Brighton roadworks drive health staff crazy

4:13pm Tuesday 10th November 2009

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Staff at a health centre are being driven round the bend by near-constant roadworks.

Employees at the Brighton Natural Health Centre, in Regent Street, claim the road has been dug up a total of 26 times since 2005 and ten times in the past ten years.

Laurie Booth, who runs gyrotonics classes at the centre, said the disruption has damaged passing trade and prevented “peaceful” classes.

He said: “We often have pneumatic hammers literally two yards from where we are working.

“The work seems to be a lot of stuff that is being repeated.

“There was a new block of buildings built back in 2004 and 2005 and I don’t think they did the job properly so the utility companies have been in and out.

“You have the gas people come in and then a few weeks later the water people are digging up the same place.

“The whole thing is an ongoing joke.”

Up to 30 people attend the health centre every hour for different classes including yoga, tai chi and gyrotonics, which are exercises to help to release tension and loosen joints.

Peaceful Manager Louisa Kenyon said the roadworks had hit customer numbers.

She said: “We have many yoga classes here and they really need to be quiet and peaceful.

“The whole idea is to switch off and you can’t do that when there is a digger outside.

“The work also discourages people from walking down the street so we are missing out on a lot of passing trade.”

The last work finished about a fortnight ago but Ms Kenyon is worried that there will be more disruption soon She said: “It goes away for a couple of months then it’s back again and it always takes longer than they say.”

A spokeswoman for Brighton and Hove City Council was unable to comment on the amount of roadworks in Regent Street as the person with that information was unavailable yesterday.

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