TRADERS in Barnoldswick are celebrating after work, which would have meant digging up the road outside their shops in the run-up to Christmas, was postponed.

Business owners in Church Street had received a letter from National Grid advising them of work to replace a gas main leading up to the festive season.

The news came after a ‘nightmare’ few weeks, dur-ing which time Lancashire County Council (LCC) had layed new stone flags.

Then, two weeks ago, engineers from Yorkshire Electricity had to dig up the newly-laid flags just hours after workmen had finished, following a power cut which left businesses in darkness for a number of hours and forced them to close temporarily.

Now local councillors and the chamber of trade have agreed a last-minute deal with National Grid and the county council’s highways department to put off the work until January 4.

Shopkeeper Ann Clarke, of Whichcrafts, said: “It’s been a nightmare. We have already had the road dug up and all the pavements and it really affected our business for two weeks, probably by about 50 per cent.” Barnoldswick town councillor Jenny Purcell, who campaigned against the planned work, said: “I’ve been listening to all the shopkeepers and heard how they’ve been strugg-ling this year.

“They couldn’t take any more disruption or loss of trade. The work that’s been done has already had a very serious impact, with most of them losing more than 30 per cent of their income.

“They’re going to need every penny they can get this Christmas season.”

Despite National Grid assurances that a new gas main would not be installed until 2011, the company wrote to traders to say the work was to begin this week and would last until December 21.

But the utilities company has now agreed to put the work on hold.

Jeanette Unsworth, of National Grid, said: “We were under pressure from LCC to do this work because they needed to do the resurfacing.

“This essential gas main replacement needs to be finished before the end of March. But we were willing to try to be flexible.”