Kentish Express Ashford & District
‘Catastrophic roadworks are crippling businesses in village’
Frustrated business owners say they are losing thousands in trade after being “isolated” by months-long roadworks in Pluckley.
South East Water works have closed a major road into the village – and they are scheduled to continue for another six months.
The £700,000 project, which involves replacing 1.2 kilometres of 70-year-old water pipe, started in November and is now in its second phase of six.
It has seen a full road closure on sections of Smarden Road, with the second phase closing a stretch from The Street to Egerton Road.
David Luckhurst, who owns D.R. Luckhurst butchers, says the closure is “crippling” the village.
“I’ve compared takings and we’re quite a bit down per week on last year – January is a quiet month anyway but this will be going on for a long time,” he explained.
“I’m worried the customers we worked so hard to earn since moving here four years ago will go back to the supermarkets, simply because it’s so difficult to get to the village at the moment.
“One of the main problems is the signage – there’s nothing to say that businesses are open and the ‘road closed’ signs are so far in advance of the village that people just aren’t even bothering.”
Jeremy Dufour, South East Water project manager, issued a statement in response to the concerns.
He said: “We are really sorry to anyone who has been disrupted by our vital, ongoing £700,000 engineering work to replace an unreliable 70-year-old water main in Smarden Road with new pipe to continue to provide top quality drinking water to the area.
“We have now entered the second phase of the project which was always planned to be carried out under a full road closure which is necessary to keep our workforce and local people safe at all times.
“Initially, we had planned to end the first phase of work using temporary traffic lights but due to the hard work of our construction team, we were able to complete that section of work early and therefore the temporary lights were not needed.
“Our project team has been in constant dialogue with both the community and local businesses from the start of the planning process and discussions will continue until the end of the work.
“We have a dedicated customer liaison manager working on this project and we urge anyone with any issues to contact us so we can help provide a solution.”
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