Road closure costs businesses thousands of pounds

Garage owner John Hancock says the closure has been costing him about £2,000 per month

Business owners have said they are losing thousands of pounds due to a road closure in Stoke-on-Trent which has already lasted three months.

Newcastle Road in Middleport has been shut since April after a fire saw one of the buildings there become unsafe.

The city council said it would need to carry out demolition work due to the amount of structural damage to the building, but added it could not provide a time frame for reopening the road.

Garage owner John Hancock told the BBC the lack of passing trade was costing him £2,000 per month, while kitchen designer Daniel Morris said he had lost tens of thousands of pounds due to customers not being able to reach his business.

Mr Hancock, owner of Blake Street Garage, said: “We're just left with no work, you know people are just bypassing us.

“The while-you-wait jobs, they're just not turning up. We've got people booked in sometimes and obviously when they see the road closure, they don't come.”

Daniel Morris's kitchen design firm has been forced to take on another unit elsewhere to accept deliveries

Mr Morris’s kitchen design company, Morris and Co, has been running for 30 years but his customers and delivery drivers are now struggling to get to his premises.

He has been forced to take on another unit elsewhere to accept deliveries.

He said: “I realise under public safety the front of the building is unsafe - but three months?”

He described the handling of the situation as incompetent.

Cilmon Gonsalves, of Mr T's Barbers, said the situation had made him feel like giving up trading.

“A lot of people around here are crying out for help for the road to be open up soon,” he said.

“The day it's opened up I think we'll have a party down here celebrating.”

Cilmon Gonsalves believes there will be cause for celebration when the road reopens

In a statement the council said the structural damage to the building was worse than expected.

The authority, the statement indicated, was in talks with the building's owner and offering support while trying to come to an agreement about the next steps so that the road may reopen, but added that as the owner had not taken necessary action, the council had had to appoint its own engineers to carry out a safety review.

The statement continued: “These actions do regrettably take time.

“It is now clear that some element of demolition will be required to protect the public, and we will assess the situation as we go along.”

They council said health and safety was paramount and thanked people for their patience.