FURIOUS Bridgwater traders have been told there won’t be any immediate compensation payments to help them deal with a loss of business as a result of roadworks in the town.

Business owners met representatives of EDF and Sedgemoor District Council to discuss how the Taunton Road and Broadway junction roadworks were starving their businesses of trade, with some reporting losses of 25% on last year.

Traders present included Biddiscombes, Loft Fashions, Autosave, West Country Meats, Aclands, Somerset Carpenters, Bridge Restaurant, Judiths Bakery, Rossiters, Broadway Taxis, Patt Watts Motorcycles, Armoury Gallery and Elkins Tyres.

Also in attendance was district council vice chairman Cllr Ian Dyer, Rebecca Miller from the planning department, senior planning officer for Hinkley Point C Sam Harper, district ward councillors and Bridgwater Town Council clerk Alan Hurford.

EDF was represented by project manager Lucy Holt, Ross Edwards and site manager Geoff Colenso, from Aggregate Industries.

The town’s traders have long been arguing for compensation for loss of business, as customers travelling by car are driven away by long delays in the centre of town.

However they were told that although millions had been set aside by EDF to mitigate the effects of the Hinkley Point related works, the cash could not used for compensation handouts.

The £7million community mitigation fund is jointly held by Somerset County, Sedgemoor District and West Somerset District Councils.

Sedgemoor District Council planning officer Rebecca Miller said the terms governing how the mitigation funds could be used did not allow for this sort of payment.

She said: “These funds are to be allocated to projects which promote or improve the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of the community and can’t be used for compensation.”

EDF’s Ross Edwards said: “EDF recognised the difficulties that would be caused and as a result had created a mitigation fund of £7m which had now left our account and was in the hands of the councils to be administered as they felt best met mitigation needs for their communities.”

Cllr Brian Smedley (Westover ward) said: “There needs to be a way for traders to access this fund if it is genuinely designed for mitigation purposes.”

He added the pace of the works needed to quicken or the site compound needs to move from the main carriageway to alleviate traffic pressures at the junction.

Works project manager Lucy Holt said she would look at moving the site compound as a matter of urgency and would consider the Holy Trinity Churchyard, the unused buildings at 2-4 Taunton Road and the old Taunton Road spur near St Saviours as possible sites for a relocation.