'Chaos' caused at cafe by roadwork date confusion

A sign indicating the date of the works seemed to have been tampered with by a disgruntled individual

Roadworks which were scheduled but not carried out on the planned date caused "chaos", a small business said.

The owners of Cafe Sixteen, in Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex, did not open on Thursday as they had been told works would close the road outside their premises, but the works happened on Saturday and Sunday instead.

A nearby sign was also cheekily meddled with as a result.

Essex Highways said the works were moved due to adverse weather conditions and apologised for the inconvenience.

A yellow sign had informed people about the works on Maldon Road. But a white piece of paper was stuck over it, and read: "Whether we can be bothered or not."

"It caused chaos to do it the way they did," said Samantha Moriarty, whose son owns the cafe.

"We're a local little business and it's hard to get trade as it is. Every day you open all contributes. And it just makes a massive impact on your turnover for that week."

The 50-year-old continued: "You do what you're told and then it doesn't happen... it's pointless.

"We could have just had our day's trading and carried on as normal. It was a major disruption."

Ms Moriarty said other local businesses had criticised the lack of clarity around the closures.

She believed about £1,000 worth of trade was lost at Cafe Sixteen by having to close for three days, although roadworks were carried out on two of those dates.

Cafe Sixteen, on Maldon Road in Burnham-on-Crouch, missed out on custom and deliveries because of the changes to roadwork dates

A spokesperson for Essex Highways said: "Roadworks of this nature are very reliant on weather conditions, with advertised dates sometimes needing to change at short notice.

"We always try to update signage if weather forecasts look poor, but given the number of signs out across the county and the unpredictability of weather patterns, some signs get updated later than hoped.

"We apologise for this inconvenience and thank residents for their understanding.

"We ask people not to alter signage as it can cause confusion."