A FERNDOWN pub claims it is losing £5,000 a week due to the construction of a cycle lane outside its premises.

The Pure Drop pub in Wimborne Road East has complained over ongoing work to build a £7.9m cycle lane which it says has stopped customers coming to the pub. 

Pub landlord, Frances Brabant, said the work has caused the pub to go into 'survival mode'.

Frances said: "It will completely destroy everything and bring us back a year and a half in progress.

"We'll be back to square one where I started two years ago and I had to build this business up. I care about my community, I care about my team and my pub and we're not able to provide for our customers."

First made aware of the works in January, Frances said she was approached by workers two weeks before construction began July 1. 

Both she and the workmen organised times to allow deliveries so they did not disrupt the pub's business but Frances has claimed this has not been adhered to since the work started.

She said: "The first Monday they started one of my colleagues was coming into work and they wouldn't let her in.

"I had phone calls from all the delivery drivers saying they couldn't get here because the road was closed."

Frances said Dorset Council had not offered Pure Drop compensation for the lost profit and has not offered tax breaks either. 

As previously reported, Ferndown Fish and Chips, which closed doors in June, had blamed the cycle lane construction for its closure and Frances said this this should have been a warning to the council. 

A spokesperson for Dorset Council said: "The landlord of the Pure Drop has only recently engaged with us, raising concerns about access during the bank holiday weekend.

"To accommodate concerns raised by the landlord about our resurfacing work at the end of August, we brought forward our surfacing programme to reduce the impact on the Friday night of the August bank holiday weekend.

"Signage was also erected from the start of construction specifically telling patrons of the pub that it is open as usual during the works."

The council said the work outside the pub should be finished by 'the end of the school summer holidays' and the requirement for compensation is set out in national government legislation.