A café owner has slammed "ridiculous" road closures which are impacting his business as thousands flock to the city.
Anthony Grice was gearing up for Eurovision as he got his coffee store, Fika, ready for the big event. Based at Queens Dock, he could not wait to bask in the celebrations and welcome locals and tourists out and about.
But things took a surprising turn when he said an unexpected road closure has caused chaos. Based inside the Water Sports Centre, he said a road closure around the Kings Parade is having a "devastating" impact on footfall.
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He told the ECHO: "We've been preparing for Eurovision like everyone else, with flags and banners, making it all look great to welcome tourists into the city that we are very proud of, and it's been a flop. I couldn't get my head around why.
"I've checked out the village, there's thousands of people there, it's like a match day so what was going on? I realised the arena was on lockdown and the Kings Promenade was all closed between the dock and where we are so people can't get down to us.
"We weren't told about it, no-one has been in touch. You can still access us but it's a long way around. Police told us it's because of Eurovision but it's massively impacted us.
"We are quieter than we would be on a regular day because we haven't got the footfall. There's been no correspondence, if there was we could've adapted and put signage up but it's like the road is closed and that's that."
Anthony, who has another store on Woolton Road, said pop up stores along the way to his coffee store has also meant he is down on trading.
He added: "We've decked the shops up because we wanted the place to look nice. We are proud of the city and it's really good when everyone embraces an event. I wanted to do my bit.
"But I'm out of pocket because there's no-one here to visit it. The water sport centre is quiet as well, they are dealing with cancellations, you'd have thought people would want to go around the dock on a boat, and I believe it's due to the closure."
Anthony said his business survived the pandemic, even opening the waterfront store two years ago. Despite a rocky time, many people were telling him to look ahead to Eurovision and the footfall it would bring.
He said: "If they'd put signage up to help us we would've made it work. At the end of the day those pop up businesses will disappear and we will still be stuck here fighting."
Liverpool Council said: "Kings Parade is a private road and has been closed as part of the security plan by the police, as it has been done for party conference on numerous occasions."
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