THE Markets redevelopment cannot end soon enough for Bella Delicatessen manager Peppi Petralia. The Fountain Street trader has seen his business severely hit for the past two-and-a-half years because of the work.

It came to a head for him on Wednesday when a family sat down to eat a meal, only for them to get up and leave with their food because they said they could not put up with the noise and disturbance of the work across the road.

‘I have never spoken out against the Markets before, but Wednesday was awful. We were completely empty and when the family got up and left, I couldn’t believe it,’ he said.

‘I just need to vent my frustration about the situation and to get it out of my system.

‘Wednesday was a nice day, but it wasn’t a day where everyone would just go to the beach. It was a day we were expecting to be busy and I just can’t take it any more.’

His misery was compounded earlier this week when a skip and wire fencing appeared across the road, taking the place of up to half-a-dozen spaces.

‘Why have all the parking places got to be used by the market? We pay the rates as well.

‘If it wasn’t for the fact that I was suffering so much financially, I would be advocating the greatness of the market, but we will have to see how things change when it opens.’

A spokesman for McAulay Development apologised for any inconvenience caused during the completion of the Markets.

The firm said any disruption had been tried to be kept to a minimum and it appreciated the patience and support of the adjacent retailers and general public as the development reached the final stage of completion.

‘We bought the business in November 2003, then six months later they started work on the market,’ said Mr Petralia.

‘We have had to put up with them taking away parking places, putting scaffolding up in front of us, the road closures and not to mention the sewage and gas smells.

‘Sometimes on Sundays we would come in to do some cleaning and the electricity had been cut off. But it’s not till now that I feel I have needed to say something.

‘It’s the middle of summer, we should be busy, but all this work is putting people off. We have been working really hard to get the trade of the office and shop workers nearby but they have said they’ve stopped coming as much because of the market development.’