A FURIOUS village butcher said the closure of a bridge cost him thousands of pounds in lost trade.

Ian Hewitt said passing business was wiped out for more than three weeks while the bridge over the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Bar Lane, Riddlesden, was shut for repairs.

Traffic was diverted via Granby Lane.

Mr Hewitt claimed there had been a “lack of progress” on the scheme, which involved both Bradford Council and the Canal & River Trust.

His concerns were echoed by Baljit Singh, who runs the Bar Lane post office, who said the closure had “crippled” his business.

A council spokesman said repairing canal swing bridges was a “complicated process” and had involved breaking out the concrete road surface using hand tools to allow access to the concrete counterweight mechanism, cleaning and retying all the existing steel reinforcements, recasting several concrete elements and relaying the entire road.

“This all takes time,” added the spokesman.