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From the Dover Express, Thursday 9 October 2008.
Report by Yamurai Zendera
Road works tore heart out of my pub's trade
RESURFACING of the A20 destroyed trade at The Flagship says its owner,
who has closed the pub less than two years after opening.
Landlord Dave
Watson, 56, from Deal pumped £100,000 into the Snargate Street pub,
the most recent in Dover to fold, with the loss of two jobs.
Father-of-four Mr Watson blames the spring's 15-week-long resurfacing to
the A20's Dover section for driving away his customers.
He said: "[The
Highways Agency] did those roadworks for three months and it just
totally killed the business.
A lot of my business comes from passing
trade and that just stopped for three month as no one could get to the
pub. The district council were no help at all. I couldn't get any
reduction of council rates during that time."
Mr Watson, who opened the
pub in January 2007 after splashing out £100,000, said this year's summer takings were down 80 per cent on the same period last year,
which forced him to layoff his head chef.
Revealing he found it much
harder than expected to turn a profit, Mr Watson said: "I tried
absolutely everything. I got a late licence for Fridays and Saturdays
and had a disco and DJs. I did not make any money
from the pub. I would like to think it was the cleanest, most
trouble-free pub in Dover, but I did not realise how hard it is. There's
not a lot of disposable income in Dover.
"Last year we were rammed
throughout the summer but this summer you could count the number of
customers on one hand."
Mr Watson believes other pubs could soon go the same way as his.
He
said: "There will be a few pubs shutting because of the economic
situation.
"It's been an experience."
A Highways Agency spokesman said:
"We planned the works very carefully to cause as little disruption as
possible. We did the roadworks in sections so nobody would be
disproportionately affected throughout the period.
"We had lane closures
during the day but kept the road open in both directions and had
temporary closures at night in one direction. We carried out exhibitions
and dropped off leaflets to let people know what was going to happen in
advance."
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