PUB landlord and shop owner Mark Hayward says he will be forced to let four staff go because his businesses have been “crucified” by weeks of roadworks.

Mr Hayward said the disruption, needed to set up a solar farm in Castle Combe, means he is losing between £6,000 and £8,000 a week in The Bell in Yatton Keynell and his shop.

Village residents had already campaigned to save the store during the threat to rural post offices.

Now customers are staying away, as 2,700 metres of roads to Chippenham are dug up to connect the racing circuit with an electricity sub-station.

Mr Hayward said: “We’re having one hell of a time. Roadworks are crucifying my businesses.

A lot of people come out from Bumper’s Farm for lunch. We were getting 110 for lunch and on Sunday it was 32. People aren’t going to drive over metal plates.

“I’m going to have to start laying off staff; two full-time in each business. These are people’s livelihoods being destroyed.”

Julie Eddleston, a shop assistant and Post Office counter clerk, is having her hours cut.

She said: “I don’t know how many I’ll lose; it’s quite unsettling. You’ve just got to tighten your belt.

“It’s been so exceptionally quiet. The early morning trade from 7.30 to 9 has cut by half. I’ve worked here five years and it’s the quietest ever January.

“Customers have told us, they won’t be back in for a while; there’s so many sets of traffic lights between here and Chippenham they can’t afford the time. They’re going alternative routes.

“And it’s going to get worse before it gets better. I’m just looking forward to seeing people back here.”

Sunsave 17 (Castle Combe) Limited had hoped to lay the cable through a farmer’s field rather than Yatton Keynell, but withdrew this planning application.

Mark Candlish, a Solafields director, on behalf of Sunsave 17, said: “It would have been easier to go across fields. We thought we had agreed terms with all the landowners, but they started having to get reviewed. That was going on for months and we ran out of time.”

He expects work to have made it through to the Tiddleywink side of the village by February 25. Soon after, the cable will be pulled through the underground duct and work should end in six weeks.

Mr Candlish said the project had tried to minimise disruption.

“Two narrow road sections on either side of Yatton Keynell have already been done in advance of the main deliveries to the circuit, so that these are not at the same time as roadworks,” he said.

“Complex road junctions, like Allington Farm Shop to Bumpers roundabout, have been timed to be done over weekends. We have agreements not to take HGVs through the villages at school drop-off and pick-up times.”

He said the parish council would get £45,000 from a community fund when the farm starts making electricity in March.

Parish councillor Samantha Hayward said: “Considering we got an award for the tidiest village a few years ago, the verges are just decimated.”

The firm promised to reinstate verges to their start condition or better.