Owners of a Walworth cafe claim ‘non-stop’ road works, due to the council’s plan to pedestrianise streets, are causing them to lose so much money that they may have to close.
The owners of RudeNboomin, a cafe just off Walworth Road, said the last year and a half have been a ‘nightmare’ as Lower-Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTN) works are affecting their ability to trade.
Esther Webb, who owns the business with her husband, told us: “We traded for two years with no problems. But in the last year and a half, it’s been non-stop.”
She explained that as a result of the Streets for People strategy – proposed by Southwark Council to make streets safer by pedestrianising them – Browning Street had been overrun with construction.
“The whole street is blocked off,” she said. “You can’t even see our cafe when you walk down, so every time work is being done we lose most of our footfall business.”
They claim residents pushed back the council’s original idea of creating a parklet on the road – due to the noise and disturbance it would cause.
As it stands, the street was already pedestrianised before the most recent works – which Esther said came with its own share of issues.
“We’ve had to deal with crackheads being aggressive, people [defecating] in the path,” she claimed, “We even had to ask for the seats the council put in during lockdown to be removed because it was just encouraging anti-social behaviour.”
But the couple said they had not expected these current works – to widen the footpath and cycle lane and plant two trees – to cause such disruption.
“We had no idea they’d be doing such major groundwork just to plant a couple of trees. Before it started, the council told us they would do everything to minimise the impact on our business,” she claimed.
This current phase of construction began in October and according to Southwark Council’s website, it is due to be completed in December – but Esther says it will likely be ‘too late’ for the business.
“The council keep saying it will be so good for our business when it’s finished,” she continued, “but at this point – we won’t get there.
“Short of a miracle we will have to close in the new year as we have not made enough these last two months to see us through the quiet period of December to March.”
Esther added that this was the ninth lot of road closures in the last year and a half. She said things had gotten so bad that they were unable to pay themselves and lost around £1,500 in October alone.
As such, they are asking for compensation from the council, to cover the cost of the business they have lost, which they claim, are a direct result of these road works.
We approached the council for comment and asked if they would consider compensating them to cover the business they claim to have lost – but they did not respond.