Business owners have voiced concern about water works causing disruption to Southwell’s main shopping street.
King Street will be closed to traffic until February 17 while Severn Trent replaces an old metal water main with a longer-lasting plastic one.
Traders said they had not been informed about the work until less than a week before it started on Monday, and were concerned about possible disruption to deliveries and water supply.
Miss Lauren Brown, a senior florist at Poppy Design, said: “We are a delivery service and it will cause chaos when we have hundreds of deliveries going out over the Valentine period.
“If the water supply is cut off it will also cause issues because the flowers need watering all the time.
“We were only told about it at very short notice. It will affect a lot of businesses along here.”
Sam Malik, owner of 8A King Street Interiors, said: “It will affect everyone. We haven’t just got shops here, we have got residences and pubs as well.
“Deliveries are difficult enough as it is, and the congestion around Southwell is going to be massive so it may put people off.
“When we started having a one-way system it started to confuse people. People are already a bit reluctant to come and are rushing off because of the car parking.”
Mr Rupert Adams, owner of Real Clothing, said: “It is quite a long period of time and it could affect customer flow.
“King Street is a main thoroughfare and we don’t know if they are going to have to dig up the pavement. January is the busiest month for deliveries as well.”
Mr Raymond Pitchford, butcher at John Pitchford Butchers, said: “They have been talking about closing the road on Saturdays so we’ll have to see how it works.”
His colleague, Mr Adrian Stacey, said: “If they turn the water off it may mean we and others along the road cannot operate.”
Nottinghamshire County Council said the work had been delayed until after Christmas to avoid inconveniencing businesses during the Christmas rush.
It said the work would take place in two phases. The first will take around four weeks and close King Street from Burgage Lane to Queen Street, while the second phase will take around two weeks and close the road from Queen Street to Church Street.
Diversions will be in place and King Street will remain open to pedestrians. Deliveries will be accommodated where possible.
All water connections to customers will be replaced at the same time as the pipe is installed.
Mrs Beryl Prentice told a town council planning committee that businesses had not been well informed of the disruption.
“I asked retailers if they were aware of the closure and not one of them was,” she said.
“It will have a huge impact on the town for five or six weeks, and I don’t think the people organising it have communicated very well.”
The council raised concerns about the work causing increased traffic in other areas.
A Severn Trent spokesman said the project was a “small serviceability” scheme to renew 250 metres of water main that has a high burst rate.
He said water would be off at times but that a seven-day warning would be provided to try to minimise disruption to businesses.
He said: “We have been working on the design and agreed with the highways that a road closure for vehicles is required for safety reasons.
“We have delivered a letter to all those affected explaining that we are starting on January 10 and work will last for six weeks. A customer manager has been to the site and discussed access with the shop owners.
“The footpaths will be kept open and the gangs will assist the shops in maintaining delivery access as required.”
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