Water bosses have been accused of taking the romance out of Radstock after work on a £600,000 project to alleviate flooding brought gridlock to the town.

With traffic queuing to get through the town, florist Carol Warriner found herself with cancelled orders on what should have been one of her busiest days of the year – Valentine's Day.

Mrs Warriner, who runs the Rebecca's flower shop in Fortescue Road, said: "Because of the traffic nightmare and the difficulty of getting in and out of the town I have had to employ extra drivers. I have also had orders cancelled because people cannot get here to pick them up.

"I have customers who have come into the shop moaning about the traffic.

It's just not fair."

Wessex Water said it has taken significant steps to help her and other businesspeople.

Work on the scheme started at the end of last week and will be completed by the end of April. The work involves laying a new sewer and installing a pumping station in the centre of Radstock.

For the next week four-way traffic lights will be in place at the junction of the A367 and A362 with the double mini roundabout. Work has already started in Frome Road.

The water firm had always intended to carry out this stage of the work during half-term when traffic is significantly reduced. But traders said that while they were warned about the work, they had not anticipated the situation to be quite so disruptive.

Lorna Hurst, of Floyd's Takeaway, said she was hoping people would adapt to the road situation.

"I don't think we expected it to be quite so bad," she said.

"It is going to be a struggle. I have had takeaways ordered and the food has been waiting 20 minutes by the time it's picked up and then there is a journey home for the person. I just wonder whether people will bother with takeaway food."

At Automania on Monday, Keith Pate sent his delivery driver home because he could not get out to deliver parts.

"This is supposed to be the quiet period for traffic because it's half-term. There is no passing trade, just one static traffic queue."

Wessex Water spokesman Ian Drury apologised for the inconvenience caused to drivers and businesses.

He said: "To minimise delays to journeys we manually controlled the traffic lights and carried out work during half-term, when there is significantly less traffic on the road, as agreed with Bath and North East Somerset Council's highways department.

"Through the local traders' association we pre-warned businesses, explained what the work involved, and supported them by advertising their services.

"We realised that Valentine's Day was the busiest day of the year for the florist, so we funded the cost to provide extra delivery drivers for the day and advertised her business.

"Once this initial stage of work has been completed the impact of the essential scheme, to alleviate flooding in the town, will be significantly minimised."