Rainham business owners in fury over disrupting roadworks

The council says it's sorry but says emergency utility repairs to roads are causing the bulk of the issues.

Transcript

00:00No one likes tailbacks, but just take a look at this traffic. So bad, locals are now calling

00:08Raynham one giant car park. It's being blamed on the sheer amount of roadworks. And businesses

00:16say it's digging into their profits.

00:20At this party shop, the owner has greater fears than she did during the pandemic, especially

00:25with Father's Day coming soon.

00:28I really am vexed about it. It's just, it's no good. It's no good because obviously you

00:33see a lot of people that are so stressed, they're so tired. They're tired mentally,

00:37physically trying to get through everything, you know, do a daily job. Well, I'm personally

00:42using every penny that I've got to survive.

00:48And profits are wilting away for this nursery, the owner now calling for compensation.

00:54That business is seasonal. If we don't make money in May and June, we're out the game.

01:00It's as simple as that. There seems to be no cohesion between the utilities. There's

01:06no way of finding or getting any sort of compensation. And it's just not good enough.

01:15So why has traffic been so bad? Well, many of these drivers are most likely diverting

01:20through Rainham because of the M2 slipway closure at Sittingbourne.

01:24And if you try to take one of the rat runs, well, you're probably going to be making a

01:28U-turn back into the traffic with multiple roadworks and closures throughout the town.

01:34Like this Kent County Council approved closure for sewage works. But Medway Council are responsible

01:39for most of the highways within the town. And they admit that they could have been better

01:43joined up thinking between the three authorities leading to the current traffic chaos.

01:50Well, we do struggle with some of the utility companies, I'll be honest with you. And the

01:53gas is one of them. They don't seem to want to talk very often with us. And very often

01:57they come in and they just start digging up without notice, without letting us know because

02:03it's an emergency. And whether it's an emergency or not, we just have to trust them on that.

02:08They have their own programme of works. They want to get on with it within their timescale.

02:13And sometimes those timescales don't meet. We have asked for an urgent meeting with them.

02:16So I'll put that out there.

02:18In a statement, SGN told us where work is planned, we attend and request meetings with

02:22Medway Council to agree the projects. They went on to say emergency work does mean stakeholder

02:27notification can be more challenging. However, we recognise the importance of this and always

02:32listen to feedback on how we can improve. By mid-June, most roads will have reopened,

02:37but businesses believe it won't be long till further road closures throw the town back

02:42into gridlock. Gabriel Morris in Raynham.

02:46For more information visit www.sg.gov.uk