Rows collapse alert: Maya jewellery business could lose £10,000 during closure period

Feb 11 2010 by Naomi Dunning, Chester Chronicle

Rows collapse alert: Maya jewellery business could lose £10,000 during closure period

A JEWELLERY business owner said he expects to lose more than £10,000 due to his shop’s forced week long closure.

Aly Hashem, owner of Maya, which is situated opposite the Panasonic shop, said he was told he had to close his shop by council building control officials at 1.30pm on Wednesday.

Mr Hashem said: “The official from building control just came in and said we had to close at 1.30pm. There was nothing in writing he just said he was closing us because of the dangerous building opposite.”

The building problems could not have come at a worse time for the jewellery shop who expected to do big business over the next few days with customers coming in to buy Valentine’s gifts for their loved ones.

He said: “This would be our busiest week up to Easter and it looks like we might miss out. I expect the rest of this week to lose between £4,000 and £5,000.”

Mr Hashem said if the closure goes on until this time next week he could be looking at a £10,000 loss.

He added: “I just don’t understand it, there have been those cracks in the building for years.

“It doesn’t seem right that suddenly the building is dangerous. If it is routinely inspected the problems should have been spotted and dealt with earlier.

“A building like that doesn’t suddenly become dangerous.”

Mr Hashem said he was furious nobody seems to be informing him about what is happening.

He said: “We have not heard anything from the Grosvenor Estate – we are still waiting.”