FURIOUS workers at a town centre cafe have hit out at council work to repair pavements outside their premises saying it is a "disaster waiting to happen".

For 18 months staff at The Apollo in Newport Street say they and their customers have suffered due to the poor state of repair of the pavements.

Manageress Tracey Duckett said at least nine people have tripped and injured themselves on the pavements -- some seriously.

"We are always going outside and picking people up off the pavements after they have fallen," she said. "Only a couple of weeks ago we had one woman who tripped and broke her wrists outside the cafe."

When council workers arrived two weeks ago to rectify the situation Tracey and her colleagues thought it was a Godsend.

But all that was to change and now Tracey says the cure is worse than the problem.

"Rather than doing one area at a time they are doing the whole lot at once," she said. "They have blocked off both sides of the pavement and there is now about a four foot gap for people to walk through.

"At busy times I have counted queues of 40 people all trying to get past each other. I dread to think what would happen if someone fell over in the middle of it all -- it would be disastrous."

She added: "It's having an effect on our trade. People just aren't coming in because it is too blocked and we have been told they are going to be here for 12 weeks. "We know the pavements have to be fixed but why couldn't they have done one side and then moved on to the next?"

Jeff Layer of the council's environmental management department apologised for the inconvenience but added the finished product would benefit everyone.

"There are restrictions on the pavements but this is something we can do little about," he said. "We will be carrying out the major repair works such as excavation on Sundays to minimise any disruption and we will ensure that all the shops have full access, including disabled access, while the repairs are carried out."

Mr Layer added that the work was being carried out in one go to make sure it was completed in time for busy trading periods later in the year.

"There are time constraints on the job and we are already well ahead of schedule," he said. "There is also a supervisor on site all the time and traders can always speak to him about any concerns they may have.

"The aim of the work is to provide a paved area that everyone can be proud of and in the long-term it should benefit the traders."