TRADERS in Wantage have hit out after learning that their street is to be closed again to fix £200,000 road works.

Wallingford Street was shut for three weeks last September for the resurfacing work and shopkeepers say they suffered huge losses.

But parts of the road began cracking and Oxfordshire County Council said in March that the contractors would have to do the work again.

Traders learnt this week that the road will be closed from Seeson Way to Market Place for three days while the road is resurfaced again.

The work was due to start next Thursday, but after talks with shopkeepers the county council says it will time the work to avoid any disruption to Saturday trade. No revised start date has yet been set.

Rowes Newsmarket manager Mike Brown said he was angry as they were not given any warning of the closure.

He said: “We’ve had no pre-notification or anything this time, no signs, no indication of any kind. We only found out from a customer.

“None of the other shops I've spoken to know anything about it either. We don’t even know how much of the road is being closed off.”

He added: “Obviously three days of closure is not as bad as four weeks but it’s still a kick in the teeth given that its taken us this long to recover from last time, as it has for many traders in Wallingford Street.”

Owner Lyn Rowe said she lost £20,000 during last year’s road closure.

She said: “I am livid. They close it without any thought whatsoever. We will lose out again.”

Council spokesman Owen Morton said: “We have agreed to rearrange the work to be carried out starting on a Monday, to remove the risk of disruption running into Saturday.”