SHOPKEEPERS are furious over a parking ban that they say is disrupting their businesses.

The ban affects parking bays on the northbound carriageway of Holloway Road between Hornsey Street and Camden Road.

The restrictions, which are imposed to allow roadworks, have been in place since April 3, but traders in the area say that no work has been carried out, and the controls mean that customers and deliveries have not been able to access the shops.

Ali Karagoz, owner of the Titanic Cafe on Holloway Road, said: “The council put the signs up on Sunday banning people from parking, but still no one has come to do any work.

“It’s a huge problem, my customers can’t park and my deliveries can’t get through. I have had two parking fines already for parking outside my shop for work. We had the same problem for a month in 2010.

“It’s terrible, business is so slow and I have no customers. I can’t pay my business rates for April because I have no business. Things are tough for small companies at the moment, so this is a real problem for me and my neighbours.”

Peter Petrow, who works at Tiles Etc, nearby to Titanic, said: “There are no parking spaces, so when we get deliveries they have to park all the way down the road. We have had two deliveries this morning; one just dumped the stuff outside because he had nowhere to stop and the other parked in the forbidden zone, where he could have got a ticket.”

A spokesman for the National Grid, who are carrying out the work, explained that “just because nothing appears to be happening it doesn’t mean work has finished”.

He said: “The work has been agreed with TFL and we have a deadline of Friday April 15 to have it completed. We had to wait to be given this slot in which to do the work due to the busy nature of the road and its proximity to the Emirates Stadium.”

He added: “We have been working extended hours and will be working over the weekend to ensure our work is completed as promptly as possible. Businesses on the side of the road where we are working have been informed about the project.”

He went on to say that small businesses genuinely impacted by the works may be eligible for compensation.