Several businesses are calling for compensation from the local authority after continuous roadworks have left them losing thousands.

Traders on A2 Rainham High Street say customers are going elsewhere because of roadworks – meaning they are now having to use savings to get by.

The likes of Fish Den Aquatics, Rainham Balloons and Westmoor Nursery say they want Medway Council to offer compensation for lost revenue, without which they may not survive, because of the “uncoordinated and inconsiderate” way the roadworks are carried out.

Toni Ives, owner of Rainham Balloons, says customers are cancelling orders because of the incessant backlogs of traffic.

She said: “The traffic here is terrible at the moment, for the retailers, for residents, and it's affected us really badly, as people can't get to come down and collect their balloons and stuff, so they're cancelling their jobs and we're losing money.

“Getting off to do deliveries for events, now we're having to allocate extra time, and it means closing the shop earlier, so we lose trade - it's a snowball effect.”

“They're doing all these roadworks, but they're not considering what effect it's actually having on the businesses, they're not living and breathing it like we are.

“Financially this year has just been a wipeout, it's no good. We were down 75% last week as we had utilities close the road over temporary lights.

“The week before Mothering Sunday was a total loss. A total loss. It wasn't even worth opening because of the roadworks.

“I'm very, very worried because we've got major events coming up, but it's going to have an effect if the roadworks are not sorted, especially Lower Rainham Road in conjunction with the M2 Junction 5 being closed.”

“I'm personally using every penny that I've got to survive. I've not got no financial backup, so I don't know how long we can go on, how long we can sustain the current situation.”

Other businesses, such as The Fish Den Aquatics and Westmoor Nursery, have said they want the local council and Kent County Council (KCC) to offer compensation because they give out the permits to utilities companies to conduct the work and haven’t considered the impact on local traders.

Lawrence Merton, director of Westmoor Nursery, said: “Every weekend there seems to be roadworks, and it's destroying small businesses.

“Our business is seasonal. If we don't make money in May and June, we're out the game, it's as simple as that.

“We understand that they have to carry out these works, some of these services are very old and need replacing, but there doesn't seem to be any cohesion between the utilities.

“There's no correspondence with all the local businesses it's going to affect most, and that's all we're asking.”

He estimates last weekend his business lost around £2,000, and the temporary traffic lights were left to still cause backlogs even though the construction work had been completed.

He continued: “Luckily, it picked up Sunday afternoon, where again, the lights were still there, no one working, the job was complete.

“They did take them down about three o'clock, but I think the horse has bolted by then.”

Lee Adam, manager of The Fish Den Aquatics, says the traffic has meant it’s taken over an hour and a half to make deliveries to customers around five miles away in Gillingham and business is down 85%, about £2,000 a weekend, as a result.

He said: “Being in the middle of it, we're down 85% with customers complaining about wait times in queues up to an hour and a half from just somewhere like Gillingham, which is, I think, only three, four miles away.”

Medway Council’s portfolio holder for climate change and strategic regeneration said he understood the frustration of residents and called the current co-ordination between the authority, the highways agency, KCC, and utility companies “disjointed”.

He said: “We do our best to liaise with other road operators, other people who are responsible for services in roads and for the management of the road network, but it is disjointed, I won't disagree with you on that point.

We have meetings on a regular basis with Kent County Council, with National Highways and people like that and with the utility companies where we can.

“But we do struggle with some of the utility companies, I'll be honest with you, and gas is one of them - they don't seem to want to talk very often with us.

“Very often they come in and they just start digging up without notice because it's an emergency.”

Cllr Curry said he hadn’t heard specifics of businesses losing such significant sums because of roadworks but encouraged them to reach out to their local councillors and to him in order to set up a meeting to discuss what could be done.