Tenterden businesses and councillors say a major road closure is "destroying" trade in the town.

Residents fear poor signposting around the latest phase of the Recreation Ground road resurfacing works are costing the town thousands of pounds a day.

The works are preventing access to the car park behind Waitrose from the high street, forcing shoppers to take a diversion through Smallhythe Road and Burgess Drive to access it.

However, the car park has remained almost entirely empty – even during peak times – since the start of the new phase on Monday.

Deputy mayor Sue Ferguson described the scenes in town as "abysmal".

"The need for the works is evident, the road has been in a horrific state for a long time," she said.

"But what I really cannot stand is to go over and see nobody working at lunchtime, meanwhile it is absolute chaos on the streets.

"Normally, you would see the Waitrose car park absolutely bustling at around that time, but it is almost completely empty.

"That shows you that there is a problem with the directions – and it is destroying the town centre's trade."

Tara McCarraher, who owns The Rising Star, said that the issues, which come in one of the town's busiest trading months, are causing unnecessary problems for businesses.

"When businesses were first given the details of these works, we were told that it would not affect trade," she said.

"But when the signs are not good enough on a road as busy as the A28, you end up with people just driving through town because why would you want to pull over and try and figure it out when you can drive on to another town?

"On Monday, people were parked up on double yellow lines trying to figure out where to go, and they were being given parking tickets by the wardens!"

"I think one of the most frustrating things is that it could be fixed very easily – all it would take is a few extra signs to say where the car park is, and to add a couple that emphasise that businesses are still open.

"I have been told that this phase came a week early so perhaps that caught workers off guard, but it feels like the infrastructure should have been in place much sooner.

"At the end of the day the work needs to be done, but it is such a simple fix – they need to help out the town because it is collectively losing thousands of pounds a day."