Business woe as Wood Street works continue
Wood Street businesses face tough times as trade is being hit by 11 weeks of disruption as pavement repairs are carried out along the Stratford town centre street.
Work to repair the worn and damaged pavements began on 17th January and is expected to be completed by the end of March. However businesses on the street have already felt the effects of the road closure, and now fear for the future.
Diva Brows and Beauty has seen passing trade, which accounts for 70 per cent of its business, disappear.
Owner Devinder Sran explained: “We’re mainly a walk-in salon, so we’re going to be really impacted by this.
“Being on the high street we pay huge business rates and we are losing a lot of money. At this time year we are usually much busier.
“Comparing our figures to even a week or two ago, there is a big drop in the customers.
“We used to work with seven staff members in a day, now we’re working with just two staff members because there is no business.”
Devinder finds it especially frustrating that the council didn’t take advantage of quieter trading periods during lockdown to carry out the repairs.
She said: “This has been an ongoing issue and the county council know the pavements have been like this since about 2019. We had one year of lockdowns, so they should have done them before.”
Another business whose trade relies on passing customers is Castle Fine Art. It has found that the noise of the roadworks is also having a detrimental effect on business.
Art consultant Klaudia Zajner explained: “It’s understandable that these repairs have to get done, it’s just obviously difficult trying to attract walk-in clients in off the street. In addition, the noise of the works have made appointments difficult when we’re trying to talk to clients.
“I think it’s definitely slowed down business. It’s a bit of a nightmare for clients to even get in and find us now because we’ve got so much going on around us.
“Because it’s going on for so long we’re yet to fully see how it will impact the business.”
Despite the frustration caused by the repairs, Knights Jewellery owner, Steve Allpress, says the work was desperately needed after a series of nasty falls caused by the uneven pavement.
“When it comes to footfall and passing trade, we’re down massively, but all the businesses on this street agreed that the pavement needed doing.” said Steve. “If you looked out of our window over 12 months, you’d probably see in the region of about six nasty falls: elderly people breaking things and getting cuts. It wasn’t pleasant. The lads at Pragnell were taking chairs out all the time, so it needed to be done.
“There’s nothing worse than seeing an elderly woman or gent losing their dignity in the streets.”
A Warwickshire County Council spokesperson said: “The current footway improvement works are programmed to last approximately 11 weeks. We would like to thank all the businesses and properties owners for their continued patience, and we will continue to make every effort to keep disruption to a minimum.”
