Patience plea to Kirkcaldy traders as roadworks near the end

Following on from the west end High Street works, Links Street has been closed off to traffic in stages over the past month for resurfacing work.

The work started from the Pratt Street end of the road on February 13 and is due to finish today (Thursday), and was carried out in four parts, working along towards the High Street.

The shopkeepers say that the road was closed at the High Street end for the final stage from last Thursday to remove the top layer of the road.

William Crichton, owner of Cathy’s Kitchen, said: “They dug the road up, but then we were told that Friday was a “fixed Friday” which they all get off once a month, so they disappeared for three days with nothing being done.

“Our argument was that if they knew that then why didn’t they just wait until the Monday to start the work and do it all at once rather than leaving us cut off for a week?

“Because a lot of our business is people just stopping when they are driving past we have noticed a big difference in customer numbers.

“If they see roadworks and the road closed, they just don’t stop. It could have been planned a lot better.”

Raiz Ahmed, owner of the Good News convenience store on Links Street, said: “What should have been three days of work has taken them a week. They come along and work for two or three hours then you don’t see them again until the next day.

“Our customers couldn’t park outside the shop when the work was being done, then when they moved further down, the people from that end park outside our shop and customers still can’t park there, so they just drive on by.

“We have lost between £600-700 a day because of this.”

Bruce Lamond, owner of Travel Your World travel agency, which opened in January, said the inconvenience had affected his customers.

“Most of our work is by appointment, we don’t get too much passing trade, but our customers have been having to park quite a distance away to get to the shop,’’ he said.

“The beauty of being here is that they can park at the door, but we had three days on inconvenience when they could have just started it from Monday.

“It was a pain, but hopefully it will be finished soon.”

Alistair Donald, Fife Council service manager, said that line painting work was being carried out at another section of the road on Friday.

“We understand these essential works can be inconvenient for traders and residents but ask for their continued patience as the end results will benefit the whole community,” he said.