Business leaders have warned that roadworks across the city could put visitors off returning to Lichfield.
The warning from the Lichfield Business Improvement District (BID) comes after disruption to junctions in the city centre and on a key route in from the A38.
Motorists and residents have criticised the planning of the roadworks which have brought parts of the city to a standstill in recent weeks.
But Lichfield BID has warned the delays could have a longer-term effect.
“We have successfully raised the footfall into the city with increasing visitors travelling in via train, bus and car,” a spokesperson for the BID said.
“The fact our visitors and city workers have been stuck for long periods of time not only restricts our shops and offices from opening on time, but potentially puts visitors off from driving into Lichfield again.”
The Burton Road through Streethay has temporary traffic lights between the Trent Valley island and the A38 until 18th February, while junction improvements at Greenhill and the Birmingham Road have also been installed.
And drivers’ woes were added to today (31st January) as another set of temporary lights were put in on Trent Valley Road.
The BID spokesperson added: “Our local economy relies on the continuous flow of visitors, shoppers and workers into the city centre.
“We will be in contact with the relevant agencies to develop a working plan while these words are in progress.
“Meanwhile, we continue to support our businesses during their daily trading outs.”
Cllr Helen Fisher, Staffordshire County Council’s Cabinet member for highways and transport said highways bosses had sought to minimise disruption.
“Keeping a county the size of Staffordshire on the move can be a challenge at times, especially when you have to factor in highways maintenance, major developments, utility and telecom projects and emergency work – sometimes all at once,” she said.
“We are seeing some considerable development work in Lichfield currently with a mixture of different utility upgrades and highway improvements.
“Our highways teams continue to work closely with utility companies and developers to co-ordinate work to help minimise disruption to the travelling public.”
Been warning SCC for years about the Town Centre route. They won’t listen and will not listen. So you get all this because they have no foresight. Wait till the HS2 traffic starts.
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Cllr Helen Fisher needs to open her eyes and see how much disruption is being caused by allowing all of these scheduled works to occur in the same timeframe as each other. As someone who works in the city centre I’ve noticed that footfall this week seems very much down on previous weeks. Retail seems to be fighting a difficult battle in this climate, these roadworks aren’t helping.
Nightmare. I came off the A38 from Burton at 3pm yesterday and due to the volume of traffic heading in the opposite direction to get onto the A38 and being stopped from doing so by traffic light just before the A38 junction I had to wait through 3 changes of temporary lights. Must be even worse during peak period.
Driving from Derby to work in Lichfield each day can be a nightmare most days not helped by terrible junctions and incompetent driving, but having struggled through all of that only to get hit by more tailbacks in and around Lichfield just adds insult to injury not to mention my stress levels.
Every single route into Lichfield off the A38 short of cutting off onto the A515 has roadworks causing delays but even then as you approach the city centre the knock on effect is felt from all directions.
Maybe if the councillors responsible for all this chaos actually tried commuting through the roadworks they authorised then they would understand.
Or perhaps they don’t actually give a toss. You do wonder.