AN Evesham shopkeeper has criticised county council highways staff for blocking disabled parking spaces during the town’s High Street enhancement scheme.

Neil Cuthbert, who has owned the Mobility Centre in High Street, Evesham, for eight years, said many disabled drivers have struggled to find somewhere to park after the exit for disabled bays outside the Iceland supermarket was blocked by roadworks.

He said the move had led to a 95 per cent drop in his trade because the majority of his disabled customers could not access the shop.

Mr Cuthbert said: “It’s a little bit worrying that they didn’t look at where disabled people had to park.”

“I don’t want to see them having no disabled parking at any stage of the project. If the work had gone on any longer, we could have closed.”

Belbir Gill, owner of neighbouring Morgan’s Fish Bar, said her business had also been affected by the disruption with takings having halved since the roadworks began.

She said: “People just aren’t walking through. We used to get some parking customers.”

Donations of clothes to the Vale Wildlife Rescue charity shop have also been affected by the improvement works, and as reported in your Worcester News blind people have also had problems using pelican crossings because the warning bleepers have been turned off Councillor Derek Prodger, Worcestershire County Coun-cil’s cabinet member for transport and safe environment, said: “I completely understand the concerns of traders and businesses as a result of these works and I heard from many locals when I visited the High Street.

“The last thing we want to do is adversely affect trade. In fact, the motivation for this project is to make the High Street more attractive for shoppers and other visitors, which will in turn have an extremely positive impact on businesses.

“Unfortunately, works to get to that stage can cause some disruptions and inconvenience to traders and shoppers and for that we apologise.”