Chesterfield town centre businesses see trade plummet amid roadworks and diversions – slamming lack of communication from council

Roadworks are currently taking place on Holywell Street in Chesterfield town centre – with a section of the route currently closed. A temporary one-way system is affecting St Mary’s Gate, and Stephenson Place was also closed for a period, but has since reopened.

Derbyshire County Council (DCC) is undertaking the works on Holywell Street to refurbish traffic lights and a crossing, and town centre businesses have spoken out about the impact on their trade.

Sean Lennon, 58, is the owner of Lennon’s Pool and Snooker on Stephenson Place.

He said that a number of town centre shops and venues had highlighted the impact that the roadworks were having on their trade – especially smaller, family-owned businesses.

“Numerous businesses have said that same thing – it’s creating a problem. Us smaller business people have had enough problems recently. I suppose the bigger companies have as well, but it hits home when it’s your family-owned business – it can kill you altogether.”

Sean took the venue on more than a decade ago – transforming its reputation and focusing on providing a place to practise and play for young people across Chesterfield and Derbyshire.

“It’s a good business, we’ve had it for 12 years now. We’ve had to build it up. When we came in it had a bad reputation. It was open 24 hours, it had drugs linked to it – it wasn’t a pleasant place.

“We’ve turned that around, and we do a lot with local children. I’m the manager of the county junior team and I was an England junior manager as well. We’ve got a lot of good players. It gives the kids of Chesterfield and the surrounding areas something to do.”

The roadworks, according to Sean, have halved his trade since they started, and he criticised DCC for how they communicated the upcoming works.

“I would say our business is 50 per cent down. Stephenson Place was closed at both ends. I contacted DCC, who were supposed to get back to me on the same day, and they didn’t. It was three days later, and they basically just referred me to the contractors.

“We can only get our stock in via Stephenson Place, so they were basically telling me that I couldn’t trade, as I couldn’t get stock in.

“When I spoke to the contractors, they came to an agreement that I could move a cone, come down and unload and then put it back afterwards. That was okay, but the first time we did it, we had one of the workmen ranting and raving at us that we couldn’t do that.

“There was a leaflet on a lamppost outside the club, it was high up – you’d walk past it and wouldn’t spot it. I did see it, and that was why I rang the council – but the response was very slow, it wasn’t good at all.”

Sean said that the roadworks were impacting businesses that were already struggling with a lack of footfall in the town centre.

“I can’t understand how it takes this long to build a set of traffic lights. It’s a real mess. It just makes it another problem that we’ve got.

“You can’t drive through Chesterfield at the moment, but if you walk through, it’s dying on its feet.

“It’s finishing, and it’s finishing very quickly. I can’t believe they’re not seeing this. It’s frustrating – we’ve been trading for 12 years in the town centre and the difference is massive.

“It’s like a ghost town – there’s just nothing about. It shouldn’t be like this – years ago, when I was younger, town would be buzzing all the time.

“It’s so quick that this is happening. I know councils have difficult jobs with the funding they receive from the Government. After the problems with Covid-19, a lot of small businesses didn’t survive, and those of us that did survive have got another problem now.”

The owners of Einstein’s and Albert’s, on Holywell Street and Stephenson Place respectively, published an open letter on their Facebook page – echoing Sean’s concerns regarding the lack of communication prior to the roadworks commencing.

It said: “We’re feeling a bit blue and somewhat lonely. Truth is, since you closed off what feels like half of the town centre with absolutely no warning, heads up or communication with any of your loyal business-rates-contributors/local businesses, things have been awful quiet around here.

“Bookings are 50 per cent down and things are well, please pardon the Halloween pun, pretty dead. No passing trade and no easy access to businesses has meant that things really have hit rock bottom.

“We have to be frank, things were tough before all this. We’re battling all those things that are making life tough for us all – astronomical energy prices, over-inflated product pricing, not to mention rising staff costs. We have worked tirelessly despite the turmoil to keep prices as low as we can, whilst still balancing giving our team enough hours work to feed their families. We’re feeling pretty battered and bruised by the last three years’ slog.

“With all that in mind, we have a few outstanding niggles that we rather hoped you would clear up for us. Why the need to close two lanes - we’ve tried sketching it out and it’s left us scratching our heads. It makes no sense, please solve this riddle for us! When will this be over and when can we hope to recover a little of the lost revenue and give our visitors a jolly good time?

“To our wonderful, lovely friends, we are very much still open and we hope to see you all very soon.”

Huckleberry Willow, also located on St Mary’s Gate, stressed that they were open as usual despite the disruption.

In a Facebook post, they said: “We have traffic cones outside the shop – it could be up to the end of October.

“If you come from the Kwik Fit end you can still get to us and the other businesses here on St Mary’s Gate and the Spital Lane car park. Take the left on Beetwell Street, and then the first right onto Old Ship Lane, then you can come back out on to St Mary’s Gate – there is space through the cones to get into our car park!

“Hoping they will unblock it at the Beetwell Street junction, as we have been in touch, but in the meantime use this route. If you’re coming from the donut island end you can still get here okay and to Spital Lane – businesses open as usual!”

A DCC spokesperson said: “The work being carried out is part of a countywide bus service improvement plan to manage congestion and decrease journey times, reducing emissions and improving sustainable transport.

“As part of the works, adverts are published in the local media and notices are put out on site in advance, with the information also being available online. We have carefully planned the work to minimise disruption for residents and businesses, including maintaining access for pedestrians at all times.

“We do however recognise that the ongoing work is causing some disruption, and we’d like to apologise for this. We’ve spoken to business owners to discuss their concerns and continue to work with them to ensure they’re kept up to date with progress.

“To ensure the safety of our workforce and road users, it was necessary to introduce several measures including a road closure and one-way traffic in the area. Working later during the week and at weekends, we will be able to reduce the time on site and we hope the public will continue to bear with us.”