Leeds: City roadworks have cost us £20,000 - window cleaner

Leeds City Square will be permanently closed to traffic in February 2023

A window cleaning firm in Leeds says it has been forced to drop £20,000 of yearly contracts due to increasing traffic congestion in the city centre.

Superview Window Cleaning said time was of the essence in its industry and road problems meant the city centre was no longer a viable option for the company.

Leeds has several ongoing major road projects, including work on the Armley Gyratory and City Square.

The city council said it was working hard to keep disruption to a "minimum".

Kay and Eric Sloane, a Bramley-based husband and wife team, say they have reluctantly cancelled all their contracts in the city centre.

"If you can't get from job to job quickly, there is no profit," Mrs Sloane said.

Superview Window Cleaning says it is now having to focus on residential work outside the city centre to keep afloat

She continued: "We knew we weren't going to be able to survive as a company because of the amount of time it was going to take us to get away from the work.

"We were going in quite early and beating traffic on the way in, but once you hit about nine o'clock you were looking at 45 minutes stood in traffic to get out."

Armley Gyratory is used by about 100,000 vehicles a day, with traffic management measures in place as part of a £40m improvement project.

Work is also taking place to transform City Square into a more "people-first environment", with a permanent closure to traffic from February 2023.

"These two projects have caused so many tailbacks," Mrs Sloane said.

"The work is being done to make a better environment for those who work in the city centre, but when you're sitting in a queue in an old diesel van the emissions are increasing."

The £40m project at Armley Gyratory aims to increase capacity on the key roundabout by 2023

She said the annual £20,000 contracts were going to pay for a new electric van for the business, but they will now have to stick with their diesel vehicle and concentrate on residential work.

"A florist told me she delivered flowers to hotels in town and she said it has also ended because of this problem," she added.

A Leeds City Council spokesperson said: "We recognise that major improvement schemes such as City Square and Armley Gyratory can lead to some disruption on the highway network, and we work hard to keep this to a minimum by planning our programme so that schemes do not impact on each other.

"We thank people for their patience and encourage everyone to plan their journeys in advance, either by allowing extra time or using alternative methods of travel."