THE OWNER of a village store near York is demanding compensation from the city council after a road closure wrecked trade for three days straight.

Tom Fitzpatrick, owner of Elvington Village Store, said his trade went down 50 per cent because of the closure of the village main street for resurfacing work to be carried out.

He said one of the main problems was that road closure signs posted by the council in the surrounding area meant motorists avoided the village - despite the fact the road was open by 4pm at the end of the working day.

"We are open 16 hours a day," he said. "We have a lot of people coming through on their way home from work. With the 'road closed' signs up people didn't know there was access in the evening.

"Half our trade is passing trade. We are 50 per cent down on sales. I accept that the work has to be carried out but I think it's been handled badly by the council."

Mr Fitzpatrick also showed the Evening Press a letter from the council which assured him the road would not be closed for more than one day - the resurfacing work ended up lasting three days. He said: "They just didn't consider the inconvenience to us and to drivers who had to go out of their way to avoid the village, particularly when you could get through Elvington in the evening.

"I will be asking for compensation from the council."

A spokesman for the City of York Council said: "Signs at the point of closure were actually removed at the end of the working day in this case and we know that because we checked.

"However, since there was a diversion in place of some length, and involving quite a number of diversion signs, these intermediate signs were allowed to remain until the work was completed.

"Unfortunately, the work on repairing the carriageway was hampered by some unseasonably heavy rainfall and was delayed.

"Having started work on the Tuesday the contractor had to finish it on Thursday and to have done otherwise would have risked the success of the project given the adverse weather.

"However, City of York Council is committed to reviewing the way it operates and we are examining the way this project was handled by the contractor."