BUSINESSES on Dumbarton’s Glasgow Road have slammed West Dunbartonshire Council for giving them less than a week’s notice of road closures which they say could halve their sales.

The resurfacing work, which launched on Sunday, will occur in two phases over five days.

The first phase will resurface the section from St. James Retail Park to Park Street. The second works will take place from Park Street to Dumbarton East Railway Station.

A diversion is in place via Renton Road and Stirling Road and side streets will still be accessible via Castlegreen Street.

Businesses, many of which are independent retailers, claim they will lose between 50 and 100 per cent of sales due to the drop in footfall and some have said they would have closed their stores if they had been given advance notice.

The council confirmed notification letters were sent last week.

“I’ll have no customers,” said Linda McDonald, 54, of Threads Wool Shop.

“I can’t afford to close but if there’s no customers I’m not earning anything anyway.”

“If I knew for sure it was closed for the whole week, yes, I would close. But I don’t know.”

As of Friday, KwikFit workers said they were not informed if cars would have access to the garage, an obviously integral part of their work.

“We’ll probably lose more than 50 per cent of our business,” said KwikFit’s William Blair, 35.

“We’ve been kept in the dark. We don’t know if cars will be able to get in and that’s obviously going to affect us quite a lot. We’ve informed our bosses but it’s not going to look good.”

The Reporter spoke to six store owners or workers who all said the council only gave them a few days notice of works on Glasgow Road.

“No one got in touch,” said Chelsea Rybarczyk, 27, owner of Dollface Beautique.

“I’ll probably lose business as clients will either cancel or miss their appointment because it’s hard enough to park here already.”

Amrit Dhami, 22, worker at Jim’s News, said: “There probably will be a big impact because cars usually stop outside.”

A letter from the council sent to owners and tenants was dated July 18, just six days before resurfacing began.

The letter claims traffic marshals will be in attendance to guide owners to the nearest exit from the works.

But businesses on Friday said they still didn’t know exactly what’s going to happen because a council representative who came to inform them of the road closure last week had “absolutely no idea” if the road would be closed in sections or if customers would have vehicle or pedestrian access.

“On Wednesday a road worker came in with a letter to explain. I asked what was happening and he had absolutely no idea. He could only say what was in the letter,” added Ms McDonald.

Cathie Booth, 49, of Cathie’s Dry Cleaners, said she would have shut if told earlier.

“I can’t decide to shut the shop on a week’s notice, I have customers. If I’d known, I could’ve planned holidays around it,” said Ms Booth.

The works will affect Mr Kebab takeaway owner Masood Ranjbar, 46, at one of the worst possible times of the year.

“It’s already quiet for me in summer time and I have to open, this is my job,” said Mr. Ranjbar.

“It’s 100 per cent going to affect my sales. They just put a sign up, they didn’t even notify me.”

A West Dunbartonshire Council spokeswoman said the road will remain open to pedestrians and service vehicles, and letters were sent to businesses last week.

A statement said: “We appreciate the patience of residents, businesses and road users while we carry out essential works to improve the road surface in Glasgow Road.

"The work is being completed in two phases to minimises disruption and a signed diversionary route will be in place for drivers.

“The road will remain open to pedestrians and service vehicles throughout and all adjacent side streets will remain open.

“Letters were sent to residents and businesses last week giving full details of the work and the temporary traffic management arrangements.”