IPSWICH: Traders are today demanding workers return to level out a 12-inch drop in the road at Bishops Hill.

When the roundabout was controversially ripped out at the busy junction, workers had to dig up the carriageway leading into Duke Street – but they appear to have abandoned the job half way through.

The new road surface now sits a foot above the existing pavement – and there is little sign of any remedial works.

“It has been like this for a couple of months,” said Nigel Read, who owns the Country Life store with wife Mitzi. “It has just been abandoned. The road drops down right by our shop.”

His wife added: “No-one has thought this through – the levels are completely out.

“We have contacted the council but they cannot tell us when it will be fixed. They have left us here with paths that are unsafe and everyone is disgruntled.”

Barriers surround the junction but pedestrians, fed-up with negotiating the roadworks, have been moving them aside.

“Instead of walking around them, they are moving the barriers but there is a big drop, someone is going to be injured sooner rather than later.”

Mr Read said the scheme has had a major effect on trade. He claims the initial works created congestion and now customers are steering clear of what was once a popular gateway to the town.

He said: “You can no longer turn left into Duke Street if you are heading towards town so people have to drive all the way along the Waterfront to the Novotel roundabout and then come back on themselves.

“We had a customer in the other day and he said he had been told not to bother, that it was a ‘no-go’ area.

“We want the council to tell us what they are doing and give us a plan. We need this to be finished off properly.”

According to the council’s schedule of work, the remainder of Duke Street will not be resurfaced until February next year.

A council spokesman confirmed this and said: “Installing the traffic signalling has been our main priority.”

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