It could be well over a year before Sauchiehall Street returns to normal, business owners fear.

Once the safety cordon for the School of Art Mackintosh building is eventually lifted there will be work on the ABC 02, which was extensively damaged.

And the avenues project to upgrade the road and pavements, which has been accelerated to the west of the street towards Charing Cross, has still to be completed.

Traders who have been closed since the fire in mid-June fear their businesses will not survive the upheaval and are angry at the level of support they have been given.

A group of business owners and managers met to discus the ongoing situation and to highlight the issue is far from over with the partial lifting of the cordon.

Raj Mann, owns Bagelmania to the west of the site which is still inside the cordon.

She said she has not been inside the shop since June 15 and fears for the survival of the business.

Mrs Mann said: “They keep giving us dates then changing their minds. It feels like we are never going to get back in.

“I will be going back into a bomb site. Some firms who have opened again are down 75% on takings.

“When is it going to start to get better? I don’t know how we are going to pay our bills.”

She added: “It will be a six week clean-up operation and I’ve got no staff.”

Paul Smith of Saramago café and bar in the CCA said what money was paid out by insurers has run out.

He said: “Because our claim was not for normal business interruption but for denial of access there is a cap on payouts.”

He is worried there is not enough money to restart the business.

David Hutchinson of Biggars Music who hosted the event, predicted the problems will continue for a long time to come.

He said: “There are three rounds to this. After the Art School, there will be the 02ABC then the street works.

“We asked months ago to ensure the ABC works was included in the scheme of planning.

“This street is not going to be properly re-opened for at least another six months to a year. This could go on for years not months.”

Biggars have opened in a much smaller unit in Buchanan Galleries and have a lease until January and will have to decide if they move back into the Sauchiehall Street store.

Labour MSP Pauline McNeill and Labour councillor Frank McAveety attended the meeting.

Ms McNeill said more help is required.

She said: “ We know the government fund is not all used up. We are going to try and put a case for more assistance because the cordon wasn’t fully lifted.”

Gill Hutchinson of Biggars Music said I have asked for Nicola Sturgeon to visit three times and have received no response. No cabinet minister has been to visit.”

Some of the traders feel that the focus has all been about the School of Art building and they have been left to suffer.

Mrs Mann said: “It’s all about the Mack and nothing else matters”.

Gavin McGreish operations director at Campus next door to the 02ABC said: “

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: “At this stage, neither we or the owners of these buildings know exactly what their condition is. The ABC, for example, sits beneath a section of the Mackintosh building that has been at risk of collapse and it has been too dangerous to assess it in any detail so far.

“Once work to stabilise the Glasgow School of Art is completed, we will be able to get closer.”

“The delivery of the Sauchiehall Avenue has been accelerated outside of the part of the road affected by the Glasgow School of Art fire, and its completion will occur once full access is available. It is in everyone’s best interests that this stretch of Sauchiehall Street fully reopens, but this cannot be done while a risk to public safety remains.”