Shopkeepers have slammed the council for imposing ‘ludicrous’ restrictions on a popular Marlow shopping street just a week after politicians pleaded with residents to come up with a collective parking solution for the town.

Bays were suspended on West Street on Thursday, January 28 to make way for engineering works but Southern Electric failed to continue with work until Wednesday, according to frustrated traders.

This has added to the raft of parking troubles that plague the town with Matt Whiting, from Runners Retreat believing it will continue to deter shoppers from visiting the area.

Speaking on Tuesday, he said: “It is ludicrous. Southern Electric had headed off by half 10 on Thursday and they have not returned since but parking restrictions are still in place.

“People who haven’t seen the signs then park there and the parking officers come along more regularly because they know the restrictions are in place and wack a parking fine on their car.

“My issue is that it will deter people from shopping in Marlow. With the suspended parking people will come along and park there and get £60 fine then won’t come to the town again. I wouldn’t mind if I could see work was being done but there is nothing going on.”

Southern Electric has apologised for the problems caused but insisted that its teams has been working on the site all week and businesses had been notified beforehand.

A spokesperson for the company said: “We have a number of teams doing the work and the council gives us 10 working days to complete them.

“But with the way we schedule the work it doesn’t happen back to back but the work should be complete by the end of the week. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

Transport for Bucks said it had remained in contact with the utility company to ensure the works were completed as quickly as possible and the restrictions were lifted.

It also stressed there were no instructions to increase the number of parking officers in the area whilst the restrictions were in place.

Last week Marlow Town Council pleaded with residents to come up with a holistic parking solution after the county council admitted £80,000 earmarked to alleviate the issue had been spent unsuccessfully.

Chamber of Commerce chairman, Tony Thornby, has since announced it has joined forces with the Marlow Society to come up with a collective parking proposal to present to the authorities before the parking problems cause further detriment to the High Street.

Mr Thornby said: “We decided to formulate a group made up of residents and businesses to come up with a proposal because we thought if we don’t then no one will.

“I was pleased to see that many of the proposals put forward by the Town Council were similar to ours so hopefully we will get someone form the town council to join the group too.

“The end plan will be to get the county council and district council in a room together so we can present our proposal.”