PARKING is once again causing concern for traders in Billericay after a supermarket announced it will be closing its car park for several days.
The 250-space car park at Waitrose in High Street will be closed for five days during the supermarket's refit in August.
Shopkeepers are concerned its closure will cause further problems for shoppers visiting the town, which they say has too few parking spaces as it is.
Helen Anderson, owner of the Billericay Candy Bar, said: "Parking is already such an issue for us.
"Any change in the parking will impact on people.
"The winter has been bad enough for businesses anyway.
"People will go somewhere else in these days and may not come back."
Trevor Draper, owner of the Billericay Cook Shop located on High Street, said: "Waitrose doesn't want people to know that it's going to close the car park.
"It is a blow to the town, losing more than 200 spaces.
"It is not doing anything for the town – the investment into its redevelopment suits itself.
"It is painting itself in a very bad light for a company that is supposed to worry and be so proud of its caring attitude towards other businesses in the towns it serves."
Robert Mason, who owns Mason's the butchers on High Street, said: "It will drive people out into other areas."
However, Mr Mason added: "This is not going to be the be all and end all – the issue of parking is bigger than this.
"We need another car park full stop."
A Waitrose spokesman said: "We are in the process of establishing a phased programme to minimise disruption while we improve the car park for the town's shoppers.
"We will of course ensure that we inform neighbours and traders of timings as soon as possible.
"If it is necessary to close the car park, we would do this between a Sunday and a Thursday.
"This will avoid the busiest trading days for shops.
"We need to take into account the safety of shoppers when carrying out any work and the wellbeing of our neighbours, which is why we wouldn't carry out the work at night.
"In what is a challenging time for high streets we are making a major investment in both our shop and car park which we believe can help attract more shoppers and have a positive knock-on for local traders in the long term."
