business has been cut off from customers?

[SAH]

hello, two of my friends have shops in a street in a small but busy town centre the majority of their customers pasrk in the local supermarket carpark and come into town from there via a walkway. they were told that for safety reasons the walkeway would be closed for up to seven weeks while buikding of new shops commenced. A year later they are all ablit to go aout of business as the walk way remains closed and hardly anyone passes the shops anymore. THe landlord is a complete ***** and doesnt care ( no doubt able to increase rent to any future tennant once the new shopping area is complete) the council offered an insulting £500 off the business rates, turnover is down in both shops by 90 percent ! the car park is owned by a major supermarket, who dont care even though they have suffered lower turnover apparently from the reverse effect. Is there any legal remedy against either the council for granting planning that kills local trade, or the developers? or anyone do you think?

[Woody]

I'm no legal eagle, but there has to be some course of action for them, the developer / council could probably be sued for loss of income due to the delay at least...

[sunshine_mel]

did you get the time-frame of 7 weeks in writing? if so, i'd imagine you could build a legal case around the loss of business resulting from the unfinished building works

if not... it's your word against theirs, and they probably don't care...