Traders hit by Wolverhampton transport and roads revamp

The business, among the oldest in the city, is one of many hit by the £300,000 overhaul of the roads and £4.5 million upgrade of the Midland Metro.

Home & Office Stationers and E Marsh Upholsterers have also been hit by the projects, which have seen streets closed, traffic flow reversed and the main tram station and another stop shut down.

Furious traders say they can no longer take deliveries and customers simply cannot get to their shops because of the maze of roadworks.

John Henn is the sixth generation of his family to run T.A. Henn, which first set up in Princess Street in 1847.

He said: "The road is blocked outside because of the roadworks, so we can't take deliveries. Our customers are telling us they can't get here because the roads are so bad or the Metro no longer stops nearby.

"I appreciate the work will bring improvements to the city centre, but for us it is a question of whether we can survive long enough to get through it."

Barry Ralhr, who runs Home & Office Stationers, also in Princess Street, said he was 25 to 30 per cent down in profit compared with the same period last year.

"The Metro stops closing have had a big effect because there are less people coming into the city," he said. "The roads are in such a mess that our walk-by trade has also dropped massively. It is very hard at the moment."

Vicky Marsh, sales assistant at E Marsh Upholsterers, said the closure of bus stops along Princess Street had seen sales plummet at the 30-year-old firm.

"We used to get a lot of people getting off the bus and window shopping," she said. "Now the stops have gone that doesn't happen. We are only getting a fraction of the people in the shop that we did a few months ago."

In response to the concerns, city centre partnership group WV One has called a meeting next week for retailers to quiz Centro bosses about the work on the Metro.

WV One operations director Kim Gilmour said: "Obviously we hope that people have not been put off coming into the city centre and have found alternative routes during these extensive and necessary works. When everything is complete it definitely will enhance one of the key routes into the city centre."

The Metro work includes extending the St Georges and new track fitted at The Royal. Both stops shut down last month for an estimated 12 weeks while the work is completed.

Traders concluded by saying the work should not have happened at the same time as the overhaul of the city centre, which was the biggest of its kind for decades.