A COUPLE who run a sandwich shop say they have lost £6,000 because of work on the new tram lines.
Mick and Angela Roebuck say they used to have dozens of customers in the Bridge Sandwich Bar on the Victoria Embankment, between noon and 2pm each day.
But since the embankment was closed to through traffic in November this has fallen, with an average of just four customers a day in their busiest times.
Even after the closure at Wilford Toll Bridge island was lifted in February – allowing cars to pass along the embankment – business has not picked up.
Mr Roebuck said he believes many drivers think the road is still closed because there are several closure signs and fences still in place.
Mr Roebuck said: "It's hit us very hard. So far we have had to put about £6,000 of our savings in to keep the business going.
"I don't think a lot of our customers know we are still open because they haven't been able to get down here due to the work."
The business is next to Wilford Bridge on the embankment, where work is taking place to create the tram line to Clifton.
Mr Roebuck added: "We used to get a lot of people who were walking by. We also had customers from nearby firms like Pork Farms, who would come to buy a sandwich and sit by the embankment to eat it.
"The way the work has been done we feel like we have been caged as lots of fencing has been put up around us.
"I've contacted the council and they say the closure signs are still there in case they need to shut the road again.
"It's really affecting us. If things pick up we can carry on. If they don't then it's going to be very tough."
The couple bought the shop in 1999, initially running it as a newsagents. They changed it into a sandwich bar in 2005.
The new tram line will cross the river over the old toll bridge and run into Clifton. It is one of two new lines being built in the city.
Tram operators Nottingham Express Transit and contractors Taylor Woodrow Alstom have pledged to keep disruption to a minimum during the work.
