Farm shop near Leighton Buzzard hits out at loss of revenue following 6-day road closure​​​​​​​

A farm shop business has blasted a council’s highways department after a six-day road closure resulted in hundreds of pounds of lost revenue due to inadequate signposting.

Pecks Farm Shop in Eggington, had to put up its own makeshift road signs and inform customers via social media they were still open.

Fiona Peck, who runs the business, was so concerned she posted the following appeal on Facebook: “There is a road closed sign at both ends of Hockliffe Road. We are open! We wrote to the council and phoned to say that there should be a sign saying business open. They of course ignored us. It’s so very hard to run a business sometimes. Please can you lovely people help?”

The road was due to reopen on July 4 but remained closed until July 5 which prompted a second post, stating: “More roadworks again today! Yes we are open - still no signs saying business open as usual, no response from highways either. We’ve made a makeshift one - so sorry for all this inconvenience & a million thanks to everyone who has managed to get here these past few - very difficult days.”

The business, based at Stockwell Farm in Leighton Road, said problems started after a notification from the Highways Department that the road would be closed.

Fiona said: “I phoned the Highways Dept to ensure signs indicating ‘Business Open As Usual’ would be erected while the work was going on.

“However I was diverted to a call centre which passes the information on to the Highways Dept, but got no response nor any assurances signs would go up while resurfacing work was being done.

“In the meantime road closure signs were erected nearly two miles from Leighton Road and three quarters of a mile the other end towards the A5. People just didn’t know we were open and traffic couldn’t get through or had to run the gauntlet to get through.

"The road was eventually opened last Wednesday but we lost 40-50 per cent of our income. And it’s not just me. Other businesses were also affected. “It’s a fact that no-one takes account of the disruption this causes to people like us and other businesses when this sort of thing happens.

“And we’re not eligible for compensation.”

Fiona said the work amounted of a small patch of re-surfacing work. She added: “I know roads need mending but we’re told there’s no money.

“Yet this work must have cost the taxpayer an absolute fortune when in fact it could have been done more efficiently and traffic could have been kept flowing with less disruption.

"As it was workers were there for six days doing little or nothing.

“The whole thing was totally over the top. This is wrong.”

Fiona has complained to local Cllr Mark Versallion and Andrew Selous, MP for South West Beds, who has written to Central Beds Council’s highways department.

The council has been contacted for a comment.