TRADERS have survived nine months of lost trade due to road works only for it to close again just weeks later "because the yellow lines were painted wrongly."

Jill Marshall, who has run the Jills Flowerbox florist on Dovecot Street in Stockton town centre, is the latest trader to raise concerns about lost trade due to improvement work.

Earlier this year one shop keeper on the High Street contacted The Northern Echo to complain that Stockton Borough Council's £20m regeneration work had led to a 65 per cent drop in trade while a cafe owner later also contacted us to say she knew of 15 businesses which have gone bust.

However Stockton Council has responded by saying that in fact up to 50 new independent businesses are being attracted to the town centre by the improvement work which began in September, 2012 and is due to be completed by Christmas or early next year.

Ms Marshall, who has owned Jills Flowerbox for many years, said she knew of many traders who had struggled while parts of Dovecot Street was closed for at least nine months as part of the project.

The road reopened about five weeks ago and trade started to pick up again, only for it to close again because double yellow lines instead of single were painted. The road could be closed again for three weeks while granite slabs are replaced.

Ms Marshall said: "We have worked for almost a year effectively without being paid. No business can continue for long without customers.

"It had just started to get back to normal and you can imagine how I felt when I came back to work on Monday and saw the bollards up again."

A spokesman for Balfour Beatty, the company completing the improvement works for the council, explained the error was down to double yellow lines being painted instead of a single yellow line on the corner. Trying to blast off the pain would have damaged the granite effect tiles so they all had to be replaced.

He said: “We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience this error has caused. We will be covering all costs associated with the remedial works."

Joanna Wake, a leading member of Stockton Town Team made up of traders trying to improve the town, is an eighth generation Stocktonian and also has a business on Dovecot Street.

She accepted that there had been shopkeepers reporting large decreases in trade at various points, but supported the regeneration scheme. She said: "This is a mammoth task with big, long-term improvements."