'It will kill this town': High street to close for six weeks with 50-mile diversion

Traders say they fear the impact of a six-week closure of the main road through their town - with a 50-mile (80km) diversion - could be "catastrophic".

The A76 through Sanquhar is to be shut completely from 1 June in order to allow improvements to the stonework on the historic Tolbooth Museum.

Shopkeepers said that would affect deliveries and passing trade, potentially costing them hundreds of pounds a day.

Dumfries and Galloway Council said it was working to minimise disruption and signs would be put in place confirming that local businesses were open as normal throughout the work.

The category A-listed Tolbooth, which was built between 1735 and 1737, stands adjacent to the A76 - a main route linking Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway.

The road narrows significantly at that point which the council said meant complete closure was necessary to ensure the safety of road users and workers.

Work is due to start on 18 May with traffic managed by temporary lights for the first two weeks.

However, from 1 June until 10 July a full closure will be put in place.

Charles Brown, who has run C&M Brown newsagents just a stone's throw from the Tolbooth for more than two decades, said the impact would be huge.

"We heavily depend on footfall, passing trade - all the High Street is the same, all the traders are the same," he said.

"We're already struggling as it is with the way the economy is at the moment.

"And to close the road for six weeks - totally close it - it's just going to kill this town."

Local access will be maintained throughout but the official diversion - on routes suitable for HGVs - takes southbound traffic off at Cumnock on the A70 and on to Thornhill via the B7078 and A702 or the reverse for vehicles heading north.

Brown said that would also affect companies nearby running lorries up and down the A76.

He said he would have liked to see the council consider closing the road at night or using a cherry-picker to carry out the stonework improvements.

"To close it for 24 hours a day, I'm sorry, it's just not acceptable," he said.

"I'm going to lose a couple of hundred pounds a day through this - there's no doubt about that."

A few doors along, Emma Gilchrist - who runs convenience shop The Store - said she feared "massive supply issues" due to lorries being diverted which would affect the community.

"We're a town with a lot of people who don't drive and an older population - we are their shop," she said.

"They don't have other options like being able to jump in the car and going to the local Tesco."

She said that most small businesses struggled through the winter but the upturn usually seen in the summer was now "completely off the cards".

"Already in the town, lots of small businesses have shut down in the last year and we are struggling to survive and the impact of this could be catastrophic for us," she said.

She, too, backed nighttime closures and stressed that nobody was against the Tolbooth being improved.

"We understand it is important - it does need to be preserved," she said.

"But there's no point preserving one building and shutting a town down entirely."

Dumfries and Galloway Council said it recognised the concerns raised and understood the importance of the A76 for businesses and the wider community and was keeping them informed of progress.

However, it said the work was needed to address "significant stonework defects" on the building which sits on the route.

"The project has been carefully planned to minimise disruption as far as possible," it added in a statement.

"Local access will be maintained throughout the works, emergency services will have continued access at all times, and the timing of the closure has been designed to ensure the road reopens well in advance of key local events later in the summer."