The Dunedin City Council is installing a new peanut-shaped roundabout at the intersection of Forbury, Bay View and Allandale Rds outside the grocery store.
And when approached by the Otago Daily Times yesterday, Mrs Millar said she knew the safety improvements needed to be done.
But customers who did make it into her shop these days were surprised to learn the disruption would continue into December.
They had not been informed "exactly what’s happening and what’s not".
"We’re coned off," she said.
"We did the hard slog through [Covid-19 Alert] Level 4.
"Our locals looked after us — and we in turn looked after our locals — and then suddenly it’s as though they haven’t got a choice ...
"It’s not so easy for them to get in here.
"Not everybody can physically walk in, some people have to pull up to the front door so they can come in."
Mrs Millar said her business was "easily" down 10% once the work started.
Locals were avoiding the area due to the congestion caused by the roadworks and on a bad day, 300 fewer people walked through the doors of the store compared with the corresponding period last year, she said.
A customer yesterday contacted the ODT to raise the issue.
Leckie’s Butchery, next to the Four Square, declined to comment.
In a council statement in July, council transport engineering and road safety team leader Hjarne Poulsen said with 11 crashes from 2013 to 2018, the intersection had a high crash rate, so the plan for the roundabout and pedestrian crossing points was to slow traffic and make the intersection safer for all road users and people shopping in the area.
Yesterday, a council spokesman said the council had yet to receive any feedback on the change in the area.
"The change will result in more car parks closer to the nearby shopping area, so any impact on businesses is expected to be positive," he said.
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Comments
"Not everybody can physically walk in, some people have to pull up to the front door so they can come in." - And that is the crux of the matter, seems those on the DCC don't care because they are able-bodied.
They should be grateful DCC haven't turned the road into a cycle lane and banned cars.
its a good excuse to amass another 1000 cones with works start and ends and put signs in the road and bends causing further hazards..I reckon those sign companies get paid by the cone and sign...its a joke
Peanut sums up the mentality and skillset of DCC transportation department. Every time they make a decision it's a howler - and this one is no different.
What a mess DCC.
I hadn't been that route as they closed off Aberdeen Rd and didn't bother to even put decent signage for new routes. The poor guy at St Clair chippy is completely cut off with barriers making it almost impossible to reach.
They must be suffering and look to have been forgotten about by council. Typical poor planning by DCC.
The problem is that council staff are not accountable to the public. We think they are because we believe that staff are accountable to elected councillors. But they're not.
Some years ago I sought the help of a councillor with an unsafe intersection adjacent to my home (council staff had altered it, making it less safe than previously). The councillor came and observed the intersection and agreed wholeheartedly that there was a problem. "I will send in a Fix-O-Gram," they said. "What?!" I said, increduously. "I could do that! You're a councillor. Surely you can do more than that?"
But no. Seems that councillors have no more power to question council staff, or seek action by staff, than Joe Public. Seems that all that councillors do is provide "governance" (whatever that means) and council staff are only accountable to the DCC Chief Executive. They are not accountable to elected councillors and therefore to the public. That's the public who pay their wages. The system of local government is broken. The next government needs to change it to put power back into the hands of those who pay the rates.