PUB landlord Richard Crickmar says a road closure has had a devastating effect on his business.

Richard, the manager of the Tawny Owl pub, in Taw Hill, has seen his lunchtime trade fall by almost 90 per cent since part of Thames-down Drive was closed for re-surfacing work last week.

The main access route to the pub is the section of Thamesdown Drive that has been shut.

As a result, passing trade has all but disappeared.

“We’ve seen our day trade completely disappear,” said Richard, 44, who has been manager of the pub for almost 10 years.

“We would normally expect to see between 50 and 60 covers during the day but on Monday we only had six.

“It’s hard to put an exact figure on it but we’ve lost a lot of money as a result of the closure.”

The closure means that to drive to the pub customers are having to take a much longer journey through the housing estate of Taw Hill.

Richard said: “We held the Swindon Cares function on Friday and people found it difficult to find the pub.

“I had to go out and put a sign out to give directions and do a Hansel and Gretel-style trail of pink paper for people to follow.

“The fact is a lot of people do not know how to get through all the houses.

“It’s only people who live locally that can find us.

“I appreciate their efforts in only closing the road during off-peak hours but that really affects us.

“We’re the only business in the this area so it feels like we’ve been cut off from everyone else.”

Richard says his main frustration is that often it appears as though no work is being done on the road.

He said: “I accept that if work needs doing then it has got to be done but when I went out earlier on no one was doing anything. There was nothing going on.

“You could look down 1,000 yards one way and then 1,500 yards the other and there was nobody about.

“The only people about were twoworkmen sitting in a maintenance van.”

Work is currently being carried out to re-surface Thamesdown Drive leading to a section being closed between 9.30am and 3.30pm.

The work was originally due to take place in April but was delayed several times.

A Swindon Council spokesman said that weather permitting, the work should be finished today.

He said: “The work has been carried out in off-peak hours to minimise disruption. However, roads will always need to be repaired.

“We gave residents and businesses advanced notice that it would be happening and explained that the work might take longer if the weather was unfavourable.”