Road closures see pints dry up

Diggle Hotel landlady Jan Hibbert

A DISGRUNTLED Diggle landlady says the village has become a ghost town on Sundays due to crippling roadworks.

Jan Hibbert, who runs the Diggle Hotel, has made a desperate plea to contractors to allow through-traffic while Huddersfield Road is resurfaced.

Jan was left frustrated after customers were forced to make three-mile diversions to enjoy a pint at her pub.

She said: “It’s a tough time to be a landlady and these roadworks have caused havoc — we didn’t even know about them.

“We had a brass band performing, which usually draws a lot of people in, but is was very poorly attended.

“The overheads are so high and if we lose a Sunday’s takings — that’s like losing the rent.

“I don’t see why the road couldn’t have been closed one lane at a time to still allow traffic through.”

The first of four days of closures was on Sunday, with a second planned for this Sunday.

With the works stretching to Sam Road, diversions mean customers have to travel up Stanedge Road via Bleak Hey Nook to come back down into the village.

Further work to resurface a stretch from Dorset Avenue to the Stanedge Road junction, will take place on the Sundays of July 10 and 17. The worried landlady took matters into her own hands by approaching workers and questioning their methods.

She added: “I’ll sit in the road myself in protest if this happens again.

“People are in doubt that they can get to us and they won’t travel for miles.

“I’m worried that they’ll go elsewhere and won’t come back.

“Staff were late for work and the whole situation was a mess. The work needs doing so badly but it could have been organised better.”

The situation has been exacerbated with bridge works along Carr Lane and further work in Ward Lane.

Councillor Royce Franklin, who lives in the village, said: “So far the workers have done an excellent job.

“It is going to cause disruption but if there is a better way of doing it, let’s listen.”