Business owner angry after being 'left in the dark' by council

Richie Kelly, owner of Butchers Steak & Grill, says he and other businesses in Elderslie were left “in the dark” about the works, which commenced on July 23 and are scheduled to run until August 15.

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Richie Kelly outside his restaurant, with the road closed off (Image: Colin Mearns)

“We’re still trying to make sense of it,” said Richie. “Nobody told us anything. We only found out last week when the sign went up, basically saying ‘road closed for three weeks.’

“Trying to find out what is going on has not been easy at all. There’s a council e-mail address linked with the works which we contacted, and I know at least three other businesses along the road have also contacted that address. And only the day before the work started did the council reply with a generic e-mail.”

The whole main road is closed off for resurfacing (Image: Colin Mearns)

While Richie has no objection to the essential work being carried out, he says he would have expected to hear about it further in advance - especially given the disruption it will cause to the many traders on the main road.

“It will definitely have a big effect on all the businesses down there,” he said. “We’ve got deliveries, customers, staff who need to get in and out. Customers need taxis to get back and forward.

“We get deliveries every single day. We’ve not been able to tell the companies beforehand how they can get in. Some of the trucks won’t be able to navigate through the backroads very easily.

“I just can’t believe that they wouldn’t contact any business in the lead up to this to say ‘this is going to happen, it’s going to affect your business, and here’s what’s happening, so you can let customers or deliveries or staff know.’

“Why didn’t they tell us beforehand? It’s the lack of communication that has upset all the businesses.”

The works are scheduled to take three weeks (Image: Colin Mearns)

Renfrewshire council said that “letters were delivered to residents and businesses directly affected,” but that they were later “made aware that not all properties received this communication.”

The Glasgow Times visited the area on July 25 and spoke to business owners about the disruption. Like Richie, they weren’t opposed to the works taking place, but felt that the communication beforehand had been almost non-existent. None that we met had received any letters in advance.

Whilst we saw some letters on front doors of houses on the main road - advising that the project would commence on July 23, and asking residents to move their cars - locals say that these were not posted until the day after the work started. Businesses and residences set back from the main road did not appear to have received any notices.

Access to the area is heavily restricted (Image: Colin Mearns)

Iain McMillan, Labour councillor for Johnstone and Elderslie, said the council had “failed spectacularly” to inform local businesses.

“There seemed to be a complete and utter lack of communication,” he said. “Nobody had been told anything about it, and nobody knew what was going on. Local businesses were not informed on what was happening.

“If they were, they could have made all sorts of arrangements. They could have notified their customers and made them aware of alternate routes. They could have made communications with their deliveries.

“Renfrewshire council is normally pretty good at communicating, but obviously this is not a good example. On this issue, they’ve failed spectacularly.”

There are concerns about receiving deliveries whilst the road is shut (Image: Colin Mearns)

A Renfrewshire Council spokesperson said: “These works were communicated in line with statutory requirements through the Scottish Road Works Register, public notice site TellMeScotland and publicised in the local newspaper. A valid Temporary Traffic Regulation Order is also in place for the closure.

“In addition, we also erected local signage to advise of the works and letters were delivered to residents and businesses directly affected.

“Following the start of works we were made aware that not all properties received this communication. We have raised this with our contractor and apologised to the affected businesses. This will inform our engagement activity for future works.”