Businesses on Micklegate have claimed they are suffering following a sinkhole that opened up, closing the road to vehicles.
A routine inspection on the York road uncovered several displaced stones, which exposed a void below.
The sudden appearance of the sinkhole has made Micklegate inaccessible while crews carry out repair work.
The sinkhole hasn’t just posed an issue to road itself, but small businesses nearby now face a new threat.
Small businesses along Micklegate say they are now suffering from low foot traffic due to road closures.
They say the signage is deterring customers, despite the closure applying only to vehicles.
Yorkshire Water say they are currently working on resolving the issue, however, there is currently no end date in sight
Small independent businesses such as Partisan and sister location Brancusi based on Micklegate, are worried that they will continue to lose footfall.
Owners of Partisan and Brancusi, Flo and Hugo said:
‘It is affecting businesses… you’re coming up and you see the road is closed and you just don’t come’.
‘They just need to fix it and get on with it and sort it out because it makes a big difference to the number of people coming up the street. Maybe one of the problems is that there is a lot of signage that is very off-putting. At the bottom it says road closed but it says it four times! You look at it and think I’m not going up there’.
Listen to the full interview below.
Flo is still waiting to learn when her road will reopen, hoping the many signs won’t put off passers‑by:
‘I do think there is a crisis for hospitality and independent businesses are really struggling… we might lose them all because times are really tough.’
