TRADERS in Tuckton are up in arms about planned road closures during the roundabout works.

Bournemouth council recently began its planned revamp of the Tuckton roundabout, which will see new ‘parallel’ crossings at each junction, cycle lanes, a loading bay outside Tesco in Tuckton Road and other alterations.

The work is planned to take place in stages, to be completed in October, however closures scheduled over the coming months are causing consternation among business owners in Tuckton Road.

In particular, the borough intends to close Belle Vue Road, Stour Road and Tuckton Bridge between the roundabout and Willow Way for two weeks from March 30, covering the Easter period.

Also, Tuckton Road itself will be closed for four weeks from June 18.

Kim Neal of Neal’s and Sons family butcher said: “It is absolutely disastrous. Easter is normally our second busiest weekend of the year.

“A lot of our customers come over the bridge and I don’t know if they will come all the way around Barrack Road, which is bound to be gridlocked.

“I don’t understand why they can’t do the work at night, like they did with Stour Road and Fairmile.

“It is bad enough now.”

Ms Neal is among several business owners who have contacted the council to complain about the timing of the closures.

Steve Leech of neighbouring Raw Nature said: “Shutting the bridge would seriously affect us.

“There’s only been two blokes working out there, I know this is going to drag on and on.”

Lucy Almaeda in The Pie House said they feared the closures would have a major impact on trade. “We are a small business and waiting for things to pick up in the Easter, with all these roadworks it will be very quiet,” she said.

Several traders stressed that they were keen to see the road widening take place and loading bay created outside Tesco – a move the council said had been inspired by comments from local business owners.

Erik Babbe of Pandemonium said the roundabout work was needed.

“It is dangerous at the moment, a lot of kids cross the roundabout in the morning and afternoon on the their way to Twynham School,” he said.

“This will make it a lot safer. They are taking the best part of a year, but as long as they stick to the schedule.

“It may be a short term issue but hopefully in the long term there will be an improvement.”

The work already sparked controversy when a campaign arose among residents in the area pushing for a different design, in particular a restriction of the approach roads to one lane either way at the roundabout.

The council said it had carried out modelling and a trial to investigate this possibility and had concluded that it would result in an unacceptable level of congestion.

One resident wrote to the Echo with a plea for the council to use temporary traffic lights at the junction.

Rosemary Warren of Springfield Avenue said: "What on earth are the planners thinking about?

"The practicalities of all this upheaval have definitely not been thought through. I would imagine that whoever came up with this scheme lives far away from either Tuckton or Iford roundabouts."

Another, cabbie Maarten Van Den Dool, said: "When they close Tuckton Bridge there will be terrible congestion, especially when next Friday people hopefully come down this way to spend for Easter."

He said he was concerned cab fares would become too expensive for people given the queues, detour and higher rates over the holiday period.

Bournemouth council was contacted for comment.