Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2009-08-11 14:29:38 - Graham Ellis
"Businesses Open as Usual" say the signs on the High Street in Melksham ... currently (and for 14 weeks) a one-way system while various pavement works are being done.
Who wrote that sign? ... for he certainly doesn't know Melksham!
I took my customers into one of the businesses in the effected area at lunch time today. The electricity was off over the busy lunch time period ... no lighting, no way of opening the till and the staff were relearning the art of manual arithmetic. It seemed that the road workers had disconnected a cable and called in the Electric people to fix it. The road people were then saying "don't ask us - it's the electric people ..." and the electric people were saying "it's the road people who done it - we're just fixing it"
The businesses in the High Street are NOT open as usual - they're open and struggling to look after their customers, and to maintain their customer base. The lack of light to see the goods on sale in the shops, no working tills ... and the absence of hot water to make a cup of coffee, and of electricity to cook - in a cafe, at lunchtime - is something that they were not pre-alerted to. The sound of pneumatic drills, and of alarms going off, in the road works is also effecting their businesses.
Perhaps the person who wrote the signs would care to visit the businesses in the High Street, apologise for the effect that the works are having on them, and make some sort of recompense for lost trade. And if he could explain why the similar works at Lidl last winter took a handful of days and didn't result in any road closures / traffic diversions, but these are to take 14 weeks.
"Businesses Open as Usual" say the signs on the High Street in Melksham ... currently (and for 14 weeks) a one-way system while various pavement works are being done.