TRADERS say their businesses have suffered after Billericay’s major supermarket closed its store and car park for refurbishment work.

Waitrose has been closed since Sunday as part of a £4million revamp to install more counters, checkouts,anew customer service desk and improved cafe.

It is the first major investment in the store and its 250- space car park since it opened in 1998.

Despite hopes its temporary closure would boost trade for independent businesses in the town, it has instead kept shoppers away.

Trevor Draper, owner of the Billericay Cook Shop and former Chamber of Commerce chairman, said: “I have noticed sales are down a considerable amount and the whole High Street has been affected.

“People aren’t going to come here, if they know they won’t get parked.”

The only other Billericay High Street car park, behind Iceland and New Look, has 220 spaces, but 100 of these are allocated to season ticket holders.

Sales of fresh bread from the Billericay Bakery were drastically down this week.

Owner Christine Graves said: “People haven’t been able to get parked so have just been avoiding the town altogether.

“I knew things would either go one way or another, but I didn’t expect it to be this bad. A lot of our regular customers cancelled their bread orders because they wouldn’t be able to get here to pick it up.

“We have noticed more people working nearby buying their lunch from us because Waitrose has been closed, so hopefully some of them will stay with us now.”

Joanne Sanderson, whose husband, John, owns greengrocers Sanderson and Sons, said: “At the beginning of the week, the whole High Street was very quiet as everyone had stocked up at Waitrose before it closed and seemed to be avoiding coming into town.

“We started to notice a few new customers, so hopefully they will decide to stick with fresh fruit and vegetables.”

The Co-op, in nearby Stock Road, was also closed for most of the week while a £270,000 redesign was under way to introduce a new in-store bakery, more fresh and chilled food and luxury products.

It has now re-opened and Waitrose opened to the public again on Friday.