DESPERATE villagers have pleaded with highways chiefs to put up a sign telling passing trade a railway bridge is open.

The traders, in Brookmans Park, say they need a notice to stop their businesses dying.

They claim that since work began on the bridge, at Station Road, three months ago the village has been “like a ghost town”.

Business owners have called for signs to be put up when the bridge opens, but they say they are unsure when this will be as they keep hearing conflicting reports of when that will be.

Lorraine Wheeler, who works in JR Hammersley fishmongers, said: “All we want is a couple of signs up saying ‘bridge now open’ because the shops are suffering so badly.

“I know that everyone is suffering at the moment, if nothing is done about it the village is going to die off.”

Lorraine said the area has been reduced to a “ghost town” and that “everyone is affected” by the downturn in traffic and customers.

Michael Angell, who owns Michael’s Butchers, in Bradmore Green, told the WHT: “It’s certainly made the village a lot quieter, people who came up from Welham Green for a two-mile round trip, now have to do a six-mile round trip.”

Mr Angell, 55, said shoppers were snubbing the village and were opting to go to Potters Bar or Hatfield instead.

He also said had spoken to a worker at the Post Office who told him withdrawals from their cash machine had plummeted since the work has been going on.

“If people are not coming down to get money they are not spending money in the village,” he said.

He said the downturn in passing trade and the recession had combined and “really killed the village off”.

Sue Patel, who works at Brookmans Park News, in Bradmore Green, said: “We need to mention somehow that the bridge is open because if we continue like this we won’t have a business left.

“There should be a sign there, it is such bureaucracy.”

A spokesman for Hertfordshire Highways said: “Station Road is due to reopen on October 6.

“Regarding the signs, we will be requesting these of Network Rail.”