Pub managers fear they will lose Valentine's trade due to road closure signs at the entrance to their village.

Traders in The Street, Cobham, are calling for better signage so customers know they are still open while UK Power Networks carry out essential work.

Drivers can still join the road from both directions up until they reach Cobham Primary School where the road has been dug up.

Road signs have been put up as far out as Jeskyns Community Woodland, making many people think they cannot use The Street at all.

General manager at The Leather Bottle Keri Hawkes said last time work was carried out on the road the pub lost business as people failed to show up for bookings.

She said: “The signs are misleading. People see that it says the road is closed and they think they can’t get here.

“The signs should tell people that businesses are open as usual.”

Trudie Mochrie owns the neighbouring pub The Darnley Arms and understands the work needs to be done but has issues with the signs.

She said: “The diversion signs are no good. People are just going to get lost if they don’t know the area. The signs are very confusing.”

Severine Ashby works at Cobham Village Store. Last year she almost lost her role as an Evri agent as the number of parcels going through the store was too low. She has recently been given three months’ notice again.

On Monday, when the roadworks first appeared, she put out a sign next to them urging delivery drivers to park up and walk the short distance to the shop rather than turn around.

The work is due to last until February 19 and Ms Ashby is worried about the effect the work will have on her Evri deliveries.

She said: “I have already been told once before that they were going to stop me acting as an agent because of a lack of parcels and yesterday I had the same warning again.

“They are turning round and leaving.

“It is chaos. Our village has been cut in half and no one knows where they should be going.”

The shop has been an Evri agent since 2014, taking up to 60 parcels a day, but almost lost its role as an agent last year when the parcel delivery service threatened to pull its services from the village shop in favour of larger supermarkets.

She added: “We are such a small community shop, every customer counts.

“We cannot afford to lose a single sale, and we work so hard to try to attract more customers.

“But the "closed" signage at both ends of the village has effectively cut us off from potential trade. There is no sign to say our shop and our lovely pubs are open as usual. The village is deserted.”

A UK Power Network said: “Engineers are carrying out essential repairs to the underground network in The Street, Cobham, to maintain reliable power supplies for local homes and businesses.

“We will complete the work and remove the roadworks as quickly as possible by February 19. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

A family-run chippy in Sittingbourne face similar issues last year and were left thousands of pounds out of pocket following the closure of the A2 at Key Street by SGN.

Andria and Andy Matheou, who run Marino Fish Bar, nearby, saw trade plummet when the gas company erected ‘road closed’ signs on the route to their business.