A shop owner says he lost 40pc of his regular business due to a road closure he was not warned about.

Robbie Starling, who has owned the Garboldisham Village Store & Post Office shop for 10 years, said he heard through a third party on Tuesday that the B1111 was set to be closed for the day.

Mr Starling claims Anglian Water put up a sign at 7am closing the road for work scheduled to take place from midday to 4pm.

Anglian Water said it was unable to alert people in the area due to the "urgency" of the water connection work.

Diss Mercury: The general store and post office relies on through trafficThe general store and post office relies on through traffic (Image: Denise Bradley)

The business owner faced similar problems last May and estimates that since then the road has been closed up to six times.

"They don't take businesses into account and there is just no communication," he said.

"If Anglian Water had come to me and said we're closing the road and we're really sorry, it would be different. 

"At lunchtime on Tuesday we were about 40pc down - we were only getting people coming in from one direction.

"Once word gets around that the road is closed people stop coming."

Mr Starling believes utility companies should sit down with traffic firms and work out how they can do their repairs with minimal impact on local people. 

"They never put traffic lights up they just always close the road," he added. 

Diss Mercury: Kelly and Robbie Starling at the Garboldisham Village StoreKelly and Robbie Starling at the Garboldisham Village Store (Image: Denise Bradley)"It's infuriating, it just seems to be the most closed road in Europe."

An Anglian Water spokeswoman said: “We are grateful to the local business owners and road users for their patience while we carry out this essential work.

"Due to the nature of these works and the urgency of them, we were unable to alert the local business owners or residents due to the short notice of the closure being placed."

Anglian Water said the road is set to reopen at some point on Thursday.