`Hitler didn't do as much damage' - trader

"WE lost £1,015 every week turnover for about two and a half years," says Tibor Killi. "People just couldn't get to us."

Tibor's business, Killi's For Kleaners, sells every make of cleaning machine as well as offering a repairs service. His shop is on West Street, a narrow street near the city centre lined with small businesses and specialist shops.

The laying of the lines for the Sheffield light rail system, Supertram, was "an horrendous experience", he says.

"The city was like a bomb site. Hitler didn't do as much damage as they (the builders of Supertram) did.".

He has been in business for 33 years and based in what is now his own premises on West Street for 26 years. He is deputy president of the Sheffield Chamber of Trade.

"My corner was the test corner," he says ruefully.

"They closed off parking, closed off the road for months on end. At some stages I couldn't get to my own shop."

The street outside his well-kept shop was dug up and "cages" constructed around the gaping holes. One day the door to one of the cages was left open and Tibor had to rush out to save an old couple who had mistakenly wandered into the cage and found themselves standing beside a deep pit.

Machines "like old Russian tanks" would be parked on the road for months on end as the sewage pipes were moved, then the gas pipes, then the telephone lines, each service being moved one at a time.

"They dug up the road again and again and again. The management was absolutely diabolical, and they had the power to do what the hell they wanted".

Six businesses on West Street failed to survive the construction of Supertram, says Tibor. "And the street has still not returned to normal. People are creatures of habit. It's difficult to regain business when you've lost it to others".

The outrage from traders eventually led to a 50 per cent reduction in the rates charged to those affected, which in his case was equal to £1,400 per year.

Recently Tibor, who likes to have his building painted every four years, learned of the restrictions which now exist on erecting scaffolding around his building because of the proximity of the 750 volt overhead lines.

The current in the lines has to be turned off before workmen on scaffolding can work on nearby buildings. As the current can only be turned off after 2 a.m., workmen employed to work on buildings along the tramline will have to work at night, and be paid special rates of pay. Also traders have to pay Supertram £300 for turning off the current, and £300 for turning it on again.

"My advice to Dublin traders is to make sure there is a compensation clause agreed before construction begins," says Tibor. Such negotiations are underway in Nottingham and Leeds.

Further out of Sheffield, along the Supertram's Middlewood line, the traders of Hillsborough are as unhappy as those on West Street. Karen Sherwood, who runs the Cupola fine art gallery, borrows a pen and a piece of paper and begins to draw a map.

The traffic used to flow such a way, and could turn left and right, and then they changed it this way, and then this way, and then this way. Pretty soon the piece of paper looks like a three-year-old child has been scribbling on it for over an hour.

Her tale of woe is similar to that of Tibor Killi's. Delivery vehicles not being able to get to businesses; traffic diversions that change without notice, week after week, until customers give up in despair; traders not knowing how to get access to their own premises.

"At the end of it all you felt like fire-bombing them or something." Karen is a member of the local steering group committee. Fifty-six businesses moved out of the area since the construction of Supertram began, she says.

Traders were hopeful business would pick up again when the construction was completed, but restrictions on traffic flow designed to benefit the trams, are frustrating car drivers who find themselves following complicated one-way traffic systems.

"I speak to people all the time who say they used to shop in Hillsborough but now they don't bother, they've found somewhere else and they don't want to deal with all the hassle." We're sitting in a pub called The Park, just after lunch hour. Phil Waldron, who runs a jacket potato takeaway food shop, The Proud Potato, comes over and joins in the conversation.

"I can't put it strongly enough," he says. "If any Dublin trader thinks there is any financial gain to be had from having Supertram running past their shop, then they've got another thing coming".

Phil says he lost about 125 customers per week during the building of Supertram, or 15 per cent to 20 per cent of his business, he said.

Asked what message he would have for Dublin traders confronted with a LUAS line going past their business, Phil has nothing to say other than to express his sympathy.