“Caerphilly town centre is open for business” is the message from a leading councillor after traders warned that gas roadworks were threatening their livelihoods .
The ongoing works by Wales and West Utilities is causing huge disruption with Cardiff Road completely shut-off.
The council has said it is keen to encourage shoppers to support the retailers.
Councillor Ron Davies, Caerphilly County Borough Council’s cabinet member for regeneration, said: “Caerphilly town centre is still very much open for business.
“We want to support the traders in Caerphilly during this period of disruption so I would urge all local people to continue to shop in the town centre. Caerphilly has a great range of shops of all sizes, a variety of places to eat out or have a few drinks – and not forgetting a magnificent medieval castle for everyone to enjoy.
The council has said contractors will complete the work by the end of November – although Wales and West Utilities have previously said work is due to end during December.
Traders are worried that any delays could harm the busy Christmas trading period. Last week, business owners claimed that trade had dropped off by as much as 85% since the closure of Cardiff Road.
Since then, according to the co-owner of Caerphilly Indoor Market, the situation has yet to improve.
Alan Prosser told Caerphilly Observer: “It’s getting worse at a daily rate. We have come up with a couple of ideas and we are putting them to the council to find out what they say.
“One of them is to turn White Street into a two-way street with traffic lights to allow buses to get to the top of town.
“We need people to contact the council to pressure on them to let this happen. We’ll have to see if that improves the problem, but maybe the damage has already been done.”
The council is advising visitors to access the town from Nantgarw Road, Castle Street, Van Road and to use Heol Cae Barrau Road to avoid the traffic congestion.
Roadworks at the Trecenydd roundabout are due to finish shortly which should help traffic flow in the area.
This positive, refreshing message to the wider community from a senior Caerphilly politician, who has earned the respect and trust of thousands of the boroughs citizen over many years, is a very welcome intervention, Ron`s message to the wider community that Caerphilly is still a town to visit, to shop, and to relax means, so far as I am concerned, that he is on the case.
The disruption which these works is causing, at this time, is down to the Caerphilly Council`s lack of commercial foresight and consideration, they took their eye of the ball, and they considered Civic Interests over the interests of Traders and others, when they debated the possible disruption to these civic events, The Big Cheese, The Bike Race, and The Proms in the Park, and sought an assurance
from the contractors that the works would commence at a
later date than they had previously planned, they failed, collectively, probably by mistake rather than by design, to anticipate the disruption the works would have on the trading ability of local businesses.
Now we are in this current position, it is the responsibility for ALL Councillors to accept that their report will show, " Should have, and could have, done better" and not to do what some have done in the last week or so by clutching straws which do not exist, much better to display an element of human vulnerability, and dare I say it, humility, and work with everyone in the town to get over this situation, and instigate a damage limitation exercise.
I am pleased to see that Ron Davies is backing the town through this difficult period. I was present at the Town Management meeting where the gas main replacement was first announced. He was the only elected member who voiced concerns at the prospect of disruption this work would cause.
Some dislocation of business and domestic life is inevitable, when work of this nature is carried out; it is part of the role of a local authority to minimise this. The council, instead, published advice on their web site to "avoid Caerphilly town centre". Advice which was quickly altered when town’s people and traders complained.
Let us all hope that Ron Davies can utilise his great experience and considerable gifts of persuasion to ameliorate the problem. He strikes me as being a seasoned professional.