The High Street holes misery is set to return to Herne Bay when a second round of repairs gets underway, the Gazette can reveal.

The busy road has only just reopened after six weeks shut following the bizarre appearance of two deep craters in its surface last month.

But contractors still need to carry out further repairs, with traders fearing it could hit them hard if speculation the work is pencilled in for three weeks before Christmas is true.

Style Photography studio owner Doug Brown said: “Footfall through the High Street has been really curtailed.

“It seemed almost like a ghost town. You would look outside the door and wonder where all the people were.

“I know that traders around here have seen their takings well down over the last few weeks. Now it is being suggested they are going to start digging up the road again three weeks before Christmas, which is not good timing at all.”

Rainbow Crafts owner Pauline Butler says she is pleased the traffic flow through the area has returned to normal, but fears the timing of further work.

She said: “It is definitely a concern as it has been the worst five or six weeks we’ve had in the eight years I’ve been trading here.

“The road is getting back to normal, but it will take time and work to start bringing people back into the shop.

“Work before Christmas has been mentioned, but nothing has been official. Hopefully the work won’t coincide with December because it could wreck business again.

“We could certainly do without it in the Christmas period. If it must be done then hopefully they will inform us and there will be negotiations about when they are thinking.”

But KCC spokesman Thom Morris denied that the works have been pencilled in to start before the Christmas period.

He said: “Whilst we have made repairs and reopened the road for the key summer holiday period, a full investigation of the situation is required. This is likely to commence in the autumn.

“There are no plans to do any further works before Christmas and any future works will depend on the outcome of the engineering investigations. Once this is known then we will advise businesses accordingly.”

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