Shopkeepers are pulling their hair out this week as they claim the disruption from an £11million development is not worth the benefits.

Business owners along Southall Broadway are shocked by the level of traffic chaos caused by the Southall Big Plan project, which they claim has reached nightmare proportions.

Works began last week to narrow the lanes along Southall Broadway, widen the pavements and to create an island in the middle of the road; resulting in the road being temporarily turned into a one way system until Christmas.

The changes being made are largely designed to tackle the extremely high number of pedestrian casualties, which had reach just over one a month.

However, family businesses in the area feel that the new road will not allow for emergency vehicles to get through and that car parks in the area are not adequately signposted. They are also concerned about small black cameras that follow traffic in the area, penalising frustrated motorists for making wrong turns.

Jeweller Naveen Kumar from Ramesh Jewellers Southall Broadway said: “The level of disruption here is actually sickening. It will take you two hours to get into Herbert Road car park and at least one hour to get out. You can no longer turn left onto Uxbridge Road so you have to go around. The one way system is causing a lot of confusion and frustration and to top it off the council have very discrete small black cameras that follow the motorists to issue tickets for wrong turns. People do not notice the small round black cameras as they are below a bigger white camera. I don’t think this is fair. There are no signs to alert you to the cameras.

“The narrowing of the roads will turn The Broadway into a bottle neck and over the next six months visitors to this area will be put off and our businesses are going to suffer.

“The only benefit I can see from this project is the reduction in the number of pedestrian casualties. Otherwise I do not think all this nightmare disruption is worth it. We have had the family business here for over 30 years and in all that time I have never seen anything like this."

Ealing Council have been contacted for comment.