FARTOWN traders battling to stop roadworks ruining their businesses have suffered a further blow.

Traders on busy Bradford Road thought they had won a victory when Kirklees Council adjusted barriers which had been blocking off access to their shops.

But the barriers are set to block off the shops again when diggers return to the site.

They were put up while work to replace kerbs, resurface the road and fix traffic signals got under way.

Work started on January 10.

Two weeks later, Kirklees agreed to alter sections of the barriers, to allow cars to park outside some shops and to give pedestrians direct access.

However, the barriers went back up on February 7.

On February 11, Mr Masood Jalali, who owns Pizza Place on Bradford Road, complained to the council again and the barriers were adjusted once more to allow pedestrian access.

However, the traders have been told these adjustments are only temporary and the shops will be blocked off once more.

Mr Jalali said it would have been better if only the sections of road where work was taking place were barricaded.

He added: "They only have a certain amount of manpower and can only do one section at a time. So they could have barricaded it section by section.

"This has really been affecting our business. Last week we hardly took any money. Customers cannot park outside. Even if they park on the other side of the road they cannot cross over to us directly."

A Kirklees highways department spokesman said the barriers had been adjusted to create better access for traders, but had to be put back to their original state while work was carried out.

He added: "The works are such that, where possible, we adjust the barriers to allow for the easiest access. But at times during the works this is not possible.

"We are doing the works on Bradford Road in the smallest possible feasible lengths.

"Due to the nature of the work it is not practical to do the work in any shorter lengths. These were decided on after consultations with traders.

"We have affected only 37 metres of parking. A significant amount of the works is next to double yellow lines, where parking is not allowed anyway."

He said the work was expected to finish by the end of April.