Owner of Burnley salon Emma B's Hair Lounge says roadworks for Town2Turf project killing business

And Emma Hill, who owns Emma B’s Hair Lounge on Yorkshire Street, said that for the first time since she opened her business she did not have one single client booked in on Thursday afternoon last week.

Emma said: “These roadworks have had a devastating effect on our trade. I have never known anything as bad as this.”

Emma said that many of her clients, mainly her older ones, had stopped going to her salon because the roadworks were just too difficult to navigate. She said: “It’s just too stressful for them because the traffic around here is so busy and parking is a nightmare.”

Emma has lost income from an aesthetician, who rented space in the salon, but has now left due to the drop off in custom. But the nail technician who works from the salon is still there.

Passing trade, which was one of the main factors that inspired Emma to re-locate to Yorkshire Street from the Briercliffe retail park, had also been killed off by the roadworks, she said. The salon has been badly hit by the second phase of the project which began in January and saw a temporary road diversion put in place on the short stretch of Yorkshire Street that goes past the Keirby Hotel and links to Croft Street and St James's Street which has been temporarily closed.

Cars and other vehicles can access Keirby Walk and the car park under Charter Walk shopping centre by travelling along Centenary Way, turning right at the Tesco traffic lights into Red Lion Street and immediately right again into Croft Street (which has temporarily been made two-way). Emma said she had been informed that the pavement outside her salon would have to be dug up as part of the project which means she will have to close for a while. She added: “We haven’t been given a date for when this will happen. It’s disheartening that the communication to businesses since this began has been virtually nil.

“I have had to ring the council myself to find out what is happening and I still have no idea when they will be digging the pavement up so I can’t make any contingency plans.”

In January Ben Ibrahim, who own Continentals restaurant on Keirby Walk, said the roadworks had seen his takings drop by 50 per cent. And he made an appeal for planners to ‘get from behind their desks’ and witness first hand the drastic impact the project was having on traders.