Closing a key road through Highland Perthshire could mean the difference between “life or death” for businesses that rely on tourism, it has been claimed.
Work on broadband cables will block the road connecting tourist hotspots Kenmore and Aberfeldy to the Scottish Crannog visitor centre, just as visitors are flocking to Loch Tay during the English half term holidays.
The junction between the A827 and C253 roads will be open once an hour but bosses at the crannog centre fear people will not wait, putting it at risk of losing crucial customers.
BT Openreach contractors are due to start work on Monday for three days.
The road will be shut between 9.30am and 3.30pm, apart from three short intervals to let traffic pass.
Gayle van der S Olivier at the Scottish Crannog Centre said: “The road is open at intervals but if you’re a visitor here on holiday you’re not going to want to wait for an hour, you’ll just turn round.
“Kenmore is absolutely packed with holidaymakers and it’s going to be the same next week when the English holidays start so we’re going to lose a lot of business.
“It’s hard enough having a business in a rural area without potential customers being turned away.
“It sounds dramatic but it is literally a case of life and death for a small business like ours because if we don’t get the visitors in we simply can’t afford to operate.”
She said local traders were not warned about the work until the road signs appeared this week.
“We don’t object to them doing the work, we hope it will improve broadband in the area, which is really important to the community,” Gayle said.
“But if they had taken the time to speak to local businesses beforehand we could have explained that it is a completely unsuitable time to do the work and asked them to postpone it by a week or two.”
The concerns were shared by Angus Mackay, manager of accommodation complex Taymouth Marina, which is also home to a restaurant and watersports facilities.
He said: “Any visitors trying to get into the area will see the road closed signs and just turn around again.
“It won’t be quite as damaging for us because it’s a complex so once our guests are in, they’re in, but it’s far from ideal and I hope they see sense and postpone it.”
A spokesman for BT Openreach said the work had been scheduled to avoid the Scottish summer and October holidays, after consulting with Perth and Kinross Council, and revealed the company was taking on extra engineers to try to get it finished sooner.
“In order to bring ultrafast broadband to local residents and businesses near Kenmore we’re carrying out works at the beginning of next week ,” he said.
“This will involve renewing four telegraph poles and installing 630 meters of overhead and underground fibre cable. The works are scheduled to last three days, however we’re committing additional engineers to this job to see if we can complete ahead of schedule.”
