Scottish Power has agreed to pay a forecourt operator compensation after their business was effectively shut down by works that saw the energy company close the main road their filling station sits on.
Tim Wilfort, who runs Shawbury Service Station on the A53 to the north of Shrewsbury, says he only discovered Scottish Power was closing the road for a day to replace telegraph poles after seeing a sign by the side of the road, with the company not consulting affected businesses as they were obliged to.
Wilfort complained to Shropshire Council’s highways department, who agreed Scottish Power should have alerted him. The local authority contacted the energy company on his behalf. “If the council hadn’t done that, I don’t think they would have been in touch at all”, Wilfort told Forecourt Trader.
Dismayed with the situation, he put an official complaint into Scottish Power, and also contacted the press.
“I didn’t get anywhere at first, but after I started to kick up a stink and spoke to the BBC, I got a phone call from a Scottish Power rep. He was a local chap and was actually really decent. He agreed things hadn’t been done properly, and that I should get compensation for lost trade”.
The power firm has since agreed to pay Wilfort what he would earn on a typical Sunday, he explains: “It’s not a vast amount: I just took an average of fuel and shop sales for a Sunday, and staff costs, and then said, ‘this is what we typically take, I expect that – no more, no less’.”
Wilfort’s frustration with Scottish Power’s lack of communication was justifiable in its own right, but the works came against a backdrop of disruption for his family-run business. In September last year the portion of the A53 that runs by the Murco branded garage was shut for two weeks so resurfacing works could take place – though in this instance no compensation was forthcoming.
“The council cited government rules that say businesses aren’t eligible to apply for compensation due to roadworks. I understand roads need to be resurfaced, but as well as losing trade I had contracted staff I had to pay, so that was frustrating. We decided to do a shop refit while the road was closed.”
Also bubbling under is a dispute with BT, which closed his forecourt – again without warning – in August this year.
“I got a phone call from a member of staff to say that if I was wondering why we wouldn’t be selling any fuel that morning, it was because BT was laying fibre-optic cables down the road and had coned off the entrance to the forecourt to get access to a manhole. They also put temporary traffic lights at the exit, and we couldn’t access the site.”
Wilfort details that BT coned off the forecourt without workers coming into the shop to explain what they were doing, though when challenged they agreed to move the cones so people could access onto the site. The traffic lights at the exit remained, however, and the business experienced “intermittent” disruption throughout the morning.
While realistic about what running a forecourt by a main road can entail, this trio of roadwork-based headaches has given Wilfort resolve for whatever comes next. “There will no doubt be more work, so we’ll see how it goes when someone decides to do something else – but they can be under no illusion that we’ll just accept it from now on.”
