ANGRY business owners near Stourport say they have lost out on thousands of pounds in the past week because of “badly managed” roadworks.

Patching work has been taking place since Wednesday last week in Crossway Green on the A4025 Stourport Road, between the A449 junction and Chadwick Lane. It is due to be completed tomorrow.

Signs erected on the A449 by the Worcestershire County Council Highways had advised motorists of the road closure before the Stourport Road junction but it wasn’t until actually reaching the turning that signs saying that businesses were still ‘open as usual’ were visible.

A council spokesman said the position of signs had been reviewed to ensure they were as “effective as possible”.

Paul Rabin, of Shed Food and Drink, said his four-month-old business had lost about £2,000 in takings since last Wednesday. Last Friday he had no customers at all.

“It is going to kill us,” he added. “We have bills to pay and nobody seems to want to do anything for us but there must be something. They could have either done it at night or shut one lane off or pay us some compensation.

“It has been very badly managed. It could send us ‘bump’.”

Staff at Bell’s Farm Shop, Chadwick Bank Garage and JC Auto Valet also said their takings had been hit hard.

Garage co-owner Wendy Parfitt said: “One customer said he had a 40-minute detour to get to us. We have noticed a big difference, taking probably about half our usual takings. I think the road is perfectly all right, I cannot understand why they are doing it.”

Isabella White, secretary at JC Auto Valet, which has already lost £2,000 on MoTs alone, said: “We asked a [council officer] whether they could do it at night and they said it was too expensive but what about our expense?”

Bell’s manager Judy Andrews said they had taken “about half the money we normally do” during the works.

Council highways manager Jon Fraser said the road surface patching work and dressing will improve skid resistance and safety for motorists.