A pub landlord says his profits have been slashed by half due to long-running roadworks.

Tonbridge Road in Hildenborough has been closed overnight for at least a month by Kent County Council (KCC) for resurfacing.

On July 16, which was due to be the last day of the work, a water main burst preventing any further progress until South East Water sorted the leak.

The hold-up has been blamed for huge traffic problems in the area, as vehicles including lorries diverted up tiny residential roads and mounted the pavement to get through.

Steve Wood, owner of the Half Moon pub in Tonbridge Road, says these works have critically impacted his trade.

He said: “With the way of the business we’re always two weeks away from shutting but this has been absolutely awful.

“If you look and compare our incomings to this time last year we are down by a half.

“I had customers phone me up saying they weren’t being let through.

“There were no signs to say the pubs were open and I’ve been out to speak with them three times to tell them they have to let them pass.”

Steve explained his pub is usually busy for major sporting events but numbers were heavily reduced during the Euros football tournament.

“Apart from the England games which saved us to be honest we had no one in our pub because they couldn’t get here,” said Steve.

“Going through the tills I found that if I took the days out relating to England games, I was down from last year by about £10,000-£12,000.

“The France v Spain semi-final for example would usually bring 20 to 30 people through the door. That night we only had four.”

Hildenborough residents, Steve included, have also voiced concerns about the lack of diversion signs to appropriately re-route vehicles.

There have been reports of lorries mounting kerbs in nearby Mount Pleasant as they tried to navigate down the narrow, single-lane street.

People said there had been near misses, as pedestrians were close to being run over by the oncoming traffic.

Steve added: “There are no diversion signs and articulated lorries are trying to drive down Half Moon Lane.

“The traffic has been absolutely awful and there are no signs to say pubs are open.”

A KCC spokesperson said: “On June 24 we started planned work to resurface part of Tonbridge Road, Hildenborough.

“These works were completed at night, meaning disruption to nearby businesses was kept minimal, and we wrote to local residents to warn them these works were planned.

“On the last day of the resurfacing works, a water main burst, meaning KCC could not finish the resurfacing scheme.

“The burst pipe was reported to South East Water (SEW) which is now in control of the site and KCC will return to finish the resurfacing works as soon as is practical, once SEW’s repair works are complete.”

A spokesman for South East Water said: “We’re sorry to anyone affected by the burst on the 12-inch diameter water main.

“Our teams are working as quickly and safely as possible to undertake the repair.

“Unfortunately, this is taking longer than usual as it’s very close to sensitive utilities and protected trees, meaning we need to be extremely careful when digging around the damaged section of pipe.

“The repairs to the main have been completed; however, due to the damage caused by the burst, repairs to the road are taking longer than usual.”