Taxi drivers said today they have been losing money hand over fist due to the roadworks chaos that has hit Wickford town centre.

Customers are deserting cabbies in their droves as resurfacing and strengthening work on the bypass grinds the area to a standstill.

Journeys from Shotgate to the High Street are taking up to 40 minutes - more than 30 minutes longer than usual.

The mayhem is set to continue until the beginning of April.

Derek Burnett, joint owner of Brown's taxis in The Broadway, Wickford, said the situation was a nightmare.

He said: "We have lost half our customers with lots of cancellations. It is costing them two or three times as much and taking them much longer to travel."

Mr Burnett said his drivers were refusing to go up to Shotgate and losing a lot of money.

He added: "Those with mortgages and young families aresoon going to be in serious trouble. They're having to put in a lot of hours. They reckon they'd be better off signing on the dole. To be honest I can't really afford to keep them on."

A driver from Allied taxis, in The Arcade, said his firm was suffering just as badly.

He said: "I've had people get out in Southend Road and walk. You can't charge them for what you haven't done."

Gary Sutton, of Duxford, Shotgate, said a seven minute journey to Wickford rail station had taken more than an hour yesterday morning.

He fumed: "The work is only going on during the day, not at night or at weekends. How can they expect people to put up with that?"

A Basildon Council spokeswoman said particularly difficult work had yesterday begun on the junction of the A129 and A132 and would continue until the end of next week.

She added: "Even if work was carried out at night the area would have to be coned off during the day to protect wet concrete. That is the reason it is being done during the day."

"Major works like this do cause delays and we did try to give advance warning."

Gridlock - roadworks in Wickford are hitting taxi drivers' trade

Picture: STEVE O'CONNELL

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