Apologies don't pay the bills: Oxford’s Botley Road closure hits businesses
Westgate Hotel co-owner sees big hits from the delayed road closure as he said, 'costing us tens of thousands of pounds.'
A £161 million revamp scheme should have been finished at the end of last month, but instead has been pushed back indefinitely.
“It’s useless, it isn’t enough.”
Oxfordshire County Council issued a statement expressing their frustrations with the delays, as they stated, ‘We have expressed our deep dissatisfaction to Network Rail and to the Department for Transport about this.’
In response to the complaints made by local business owners, the county council and the Oxford City Council leader Susan Brown, member of the department for Transport, Lord Hendy, wrote, ‘I extend my apologies for the inconveniences to you personally and to local residents, businesses and visitors to Oxford.’
When the apology was mentioned to Steve, he replied, “So what, every time we have to issue an apology to a guest, we lose money”, whilst Avdar added, “It’s useless, it isn’t enough.”
Direct effect
Businesses such as Westgate Hotel and Uni Food & Wine, have reported major blows to their sales since the construction work began last year.
“If the customer cannot walk by then we get no business, you can see no one is here.”
Shop manager Avdar Lalpurwal
With the project taking place between Botley Road and Frideswide Square, it means a major traffic road into Oxford City Centre is blocked, leading to considerably less foot traffic.
Both businesses saw an effect from this as Avdar said, “Botley people don’t come here”, whilst Westgate Hotel co-owner Steve Jones reported, “Our Café was successful until they closed the railway bridge and we lost all trade from the other side.”
Simultaneously, when Network Rail were granted a 24-hour working permit, it caused further problems for the hotel, as Steve said, “People are paying to sleep for the night but the workers are doing some of their noisiest work at 3a.m, so we had to give out refunds, costing us tens of thousands of pounds and it’s a struggle to carry on.”
Looking ahead
Despite the delays making life harder for locals, there is still a scent of optimism in the air, as the newly upgraded station may mean more business coming into Oxford once its completed.
But with the Network rail failing to meet deadlines so far and still not having a new completion date, it leaves local in the dark, as Steve said, “When it will be done is a big question and I’m not holding my breath.”