Holbeach butcher hits out at developer for three month road closure

An angry butcher has hit out at a developer for a three-month road closure which is forcing her customers to undertake a ten-mile round trip to visit the shop.

G Shearer and Son has been feeding the people of Holbeach for 50 years and is an integral part of the town’s food scene but it has seen a 25% drop in the number of people visiting the store since Seagate Homes caused the closure Dam Gate in March.

Alice Taylor, who is the general manager and third generation of her family to run the business, has stressed that people are still visiting the shop but the diversion along poor roads is making it difficult while Seagate builds an entrance into its 180 home development.

Dam Gate is due to be closed until the end of June near the Fishpond Lane junction so this is forcing Shearer’s customers to travel along Fen Road up to the Hurdle Tree Bank in order to get to the opposite end of the single track Dam Gate.

Seagate Homes is blaming the road closure on Lincolnshire County Council’s highways authority — claiming that it has to rebuild large elements of the road - but did invite Shearer’s to include a £10 voucher to be included within its welcome packs for the new owners.

Alice has been forced to shell out for signs to put up along the back roads to help customers find the store and has also introduced a free delivery service.

She said: “In April there was a 25% reduction in footfall. May is looking worse than April and we still have another month to go.

“Our customers are very loyal and people are still travelling to us.

“In the week, we would normally get a lot of people in at around 3pm to 4pm who are people driving home to Holbeach or mums just picking up the children and want sausages for tea - that is what we are missing out on.

“People are still coming to us but they are stocking up for two or three weeks.

“We are so grateful that people are travelling to us. Its really nice that people make the journey to us.

“The fact that Seagate has closed the road is what I am angry about. They are not a community business - they don’t care about the community.”

Shearer’s had been started by Alice’s grandfather Gerald who was followed by son Mark. Alice now works alongside her uncle in the shop - which is celebrating its half-century milestone this year with the addition of an extension to the site.

The butchers were not aware that Dam Gate would be closed for such a lengthy period and were given very little notice of when it was being implemented.

But Alice does not feel that much thought was given to their business as the diversion takes customers along some very windy back roads - which are not to easy to navigate.

She said: “Diversion routes from Fleet or Holbeach are five miles long. So that is a ten-mile round trip.

“The diversions are along back roads with potholes.

“We have put our signs up but no-one has offered to help us. Highways have put out diverted traffic signs up but they fall over. I have signs up on Fen Road and the Cross Roads and that has been really helpful in helping people find us.”

The shop employs seven members of staff who are also having to use the long and windy diversion in order to get to work.

They have tried to mitigate some of the issues created by the road closure by offering a free delivery service - but that also comes at a cost.

Alice said: “Every single customer has commented on how bad it is. There have been so many comments from customers and suppliers and the general public who can’t understand how they are getting away with it.”

Alice has made testimonials from customers highlighting how bad the roads are and said that lorries bound for the housing estate are also not pulling over for people.

She has been told that the road cannot be reopened with traffic lights for health and safety reasons but has recently spotted that a footpath has been installed.

Alice said: “Why can’t they open the road and have traffic lights?”

We approached Seagate for a comment and managing director Adam Murfet stated that progress is going as expected along with sharing an email he had sent to Alice.

He said that the works have ‘mostly been by special request of Lincolnshire county highways’.

It also goes onto state: “The existing road construction was obtained, and LCC would not provide us with S278 approval (a legal agreement to allow developers to make alterations to the highway) unless we agreed to plane off and reconstruct a large element of the existing road – basically a way of LCC getting improvements for no cost to them.”

He went onto say that his company was ‘forced to accept their demand’ as the development would not be delivered without the relevant approval and outlined the process which resulted in the road closure.

The email also states that traffic lights could not be used for health and safety reasons along with the offer of including a £10 voucher within the new member packs.

Lincolnshire County Council has been approached for comment.