In the quaint village of Hardwick, Cambridgeshire, a road closure caused by watermain repairs has split the village in two. Literally! This is because the village has only one road running through it and the closure, halfway through the village, has become a major inconvenience to people in the area.

As a commuter village in the heart of the Cambridge greenbelt, people are having to take long divisions through miles of countryside, to get to work and school, causing them to be late. A lot of buses heading towards the local secondary school travel through Hardwick and stop to pick up students. However, some students were left stranded on the morning of Tuesday 28th November, requiring the school to send a bus. A year ten pupil, who wished to remain anonymous, said that it took about an hour to get to school. The school informed affected students that for at least the rest of the week they would need to walk a mile to the nearest stop at the local recreational ground.

Local businesses like the Nisa on Cambridge Road are also suffering because of the roadworks. With many of their customers coming from the surrounding villages the roadworks are preventing them from reaching the shop. To make matters worse, signage is unclear, with "Road Closed” signs being placed at either end of the village without details. In an interview on 29th November 2023 with the owner of Nisa, she said “It is affecting my business. I lost the trade yesterday […] and today [as well] because the road is closed at the T-junction. It is misguiding to the customers, and it should be closed nearer [to the church]"

When asked if they had received notification before the closure, and of the potential impact on the business, the owner responded, “I think that they [should] let us the business know that there will be a road closure, [but] nobody told us.” When asked whether sales were down and if so, by how much, she said “Yes, income has dropped, because people are not attending the shop as much. However, I cannot say how much it has gone down, but it is just like, [for example, if I had] five hundred people coming to the shop, it’s just four now.”

This shows just how much of an effect these simple roadworks have on Hardwick and surrounding area, from kids struggling to get to school, to the local shop being severely impacted. Next time, Anglian water should give more of a warning to the schools and businesses, and post better signage to help the villagers. Anglian Water was asked about the roadworks but had not responded by the time of publication.