A north-east businessman is considering suing the council amid claims he lost hundreds of pounds in earnings due to a road closure.
Auld Nell’s restaurant is based at South Bogton, which is about a mile from the B9025 Turriff to Aberchirder road.
But the section of the route leading to the Italian eatery was shut off to traffic for resurfacing work earlier this month.
Business fears as north-east road closure will force customers to endure a 20-mile diversion
The only way to reach the restaurant and two neighbouring businesses was to travel via Banff forcing customers to make a 20-mile diversion.
Now Auld Nell’s owner Marc Williams is considering launching a court bid to reclaim the money he lost during the closures.
He has also written to the council’s chief executive Jim Savege demanding action.
Mr Williams believes he has a strong claim for getting the lost takings back.
He said: “Surely I’ve got a legal case for compensation?
“On an average day we take around £250 so I would say we are down between £1,000 and £1,500 in one week and we have to earn that money.
“It’s a disgrace this happened for 11 little patches. Every other road would have a convoy system, but they didn’t because that’s too much money.”
Derek Murray, Aberdeenshire Council’s roads manager said it was “not possible” for a traffic lights system to be used during the road works.
He also said the local authority had received a letter from Mr Williams and would respond to him.
Mr Murray said: “Unfortunately due to the location of the patches and the available road widths it was not possible to carry out this work safely with the road open using traffic control/lights.
“Access was maintained to all properties via signed diversion routes and additional signing was erected to highlight that local businesses remained open, but we appreciate any road closure can cause inconvenience to road users and disruption to commercial premises.
“The council has received a letter from a concerned business owner and a full response is currently being prepared.
“Further short term road closures will be required to carry out the final surface dressing on these two sections of road later this year, probably for around half a day, and advance notification of this will again be given by local signs.
“Aberdeenshire Council apologises for any inconvenience caused while carrying out these essential road maintenance works.”
