Shopkeepers in a busy Coventry street say roadworks are driving away customers and crippling their trade.
A £1.2 million project will improve Stoney Stanton Road with new sets of traffic lights and old signs being replaced. Part of the road will also be resurfaced.
But traders claim the work has hit them hard – with diversions and road closures putting shoppers off.
Shopkeepers claim signs warning of road closures are confusing and say the work has caused a 90 per cent drop in passing trade.
One of them is family-run business, S Bhogal DIY, where work has started at the junction of Red Lane and is expected to last up to five weeks.
Daljit Bhogal, who works for his dad at the store, says he was furious when council workers stopped him from driving towards his business because of the works.
He said: “One of the workers tried to stop me from driving through but I told him he can’t turn me away.
"If they’re turning traders away from their own business what are they doing to our customers?
“There are no clear diversions so even our regular customers are driving around trying to get to us.
"They are not even sure if we’re open because of the signs are so unclear.
“If our regulars are finding it difficult we’ve got no chance of getting new customers – at least 50 per cent of our takings are from passing trade.
"People are turning away because they think we’re closed.
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If they think it looks like a ghost town today, they should have seen it in the 1960s. It looked like Hiroshima back then!
