TRADERS claim that a town centre ban on buses is killing off businesses.

Jobs may go if sales, which have already slumped by 25 per cent, do not pick up in Newport Road, Middlesbrough, say shopkeepers.

The closure of a road as part of an experimental pedestrianisation scheme, and the consequent withdrawal of nine bus services by Arriva, has left a row of shops without any passing trade.

"It has become a dead end,'' said Naz Mohammed, who runs a fabric shop.

"It is really dead and I do not know what the future will be. It is quite uncertain,'' she said.

Karen Armstrong, one of three partners running a seamstress service, said: "We have lost a lot of passing trade with the stopping of the buses. There was quite a bit of activity, but it has dropped about 25 per cent.'' Traders say closure of the main road, hundreds of yards from their shops, benefits the large stores whose profits are all up, to the detriment of the small shopkeeper.

"Everything revolves around that centre,'' said Mrs Armstrong.

"If we have a bad a Christmas as last year, it could affect how we look at our staffing.'' Patrick Docherty, manager of Ronnie Redfern butcher's shop, said: "We have lost about 25 per cent of trade. What seems to have happened is they have closed the road, stopping the buses coming through the town.

"You just do not get the foot flow along here. What we did have is just being killed off,'' he said.

Les Southerton, chief executive of the Middlesbrough Town Centre Company, which is behind the experiment, said: "We do view the small independent traders as being important to the town centre.

"We detect a small impact on small traders in Newport Road and Borough Road. We are trying to work out if that is down to the experiment, or other factors. Large traders are progressively getting into the territory of small traders.

"We need to look at this in detail.'' Middlesbrough Borough Council is expected to decide whether to make the experimental scheme permanent early next month.