OXFORD City Council has reassured traders in an East Oxford street that a planned road closure will not affect their business.

The city council has been given a traffic order to close the whole of Magdalen Road for 10 days to allow work to be carried out on a surface water sewer.

The proposed work concerned traders worried that their businesses would be hit.

But the city council has reassured them people will be able to access their shops because the normal one-way system will be suspended.

Council spokesman Louisa Dean said: “The road closure is primarily to allow the excavation of a trench across the road to connect a new gully to the surface water sewer. This is towards the Iffley Road end.

“We have asked for the order to cover the whole road so that we can carry out some essential carriageway repairs at the same time.

“It provides for the one-way traffic order to be suspended so traffic can go against the normal flow.

“Access is retained to all premises: in particular, access to Newtec Place Business Park from Iffley Road will be unaffected most of the time.”

Oxford City Council is responsible for roadworks on the city’s side streets while Oxfordshire County Council, the highways authority, carries out work on the main roads.

Normally vehicles can only go down Magdalen Road from Iffley Road to Cowley Road, but the traffic order which comes into force on August 19 will mean this will be suspended so people will be able to access part of the street from the Cowley Road side.

Barry Allday, who runs The Goldfish Bowl, said: “Obviously if the whole road was closed it would stop people getting to us, but this is a fairly good compromise.

“The work has to be done. In certain areas the road does need to be resurfaced and it would make sense to do it all in one go if they have got this major repair to do.

“It is not ideal, but it is good that the council is listening to us.”

Stuart Silvester, a partner in Silvester’s Stores in Magdalen Road, said: “It is a good idea to swap the one-way restriction, but it is bound to hit trade.

“We have had a lot of people phoning up asking whether we are going to be open or not.

“There are a few of us who agree we will shut down anyway because it will have an impact.”