Rutland Street shop owners arrived at work on Monday morning to find road cones and no parking signs lining the street without any prior warning from the council or contractors.

Local businesses said they were left in the dark about the planned roadworks, with no official communication from Christchurch City Council or the contractor HEB Construction.

Papanui Innes Central Community Board member Ali Jones said she was contacted by a frustrated business owner and spent the day trying to find answers.

“After a call to HEB, the roading contractor, who could not tell me anything except they would have started today but for a sick roadcrew member, and a call to CCC customer service who tried above and beyond to get some more information, we still do not know what is happening,” Jones said.

She contacted the council’s head of transport, Lynette Ellis, who said she would ask staff to speak to affected businesses and report back to the community board.

“A phone call to the shop owners and an email to the local elected members would do,” Jones said. “Nothing has eventuated yet though.”

One business owner removed the cones to allow customer access, but HEB later returned and reinstalled them.

Jones said she had since been unofficially told the work relates to pavement renewal and is scheduled to continue until 19 July. But no further details about access or mitigation measures have been provided to those affected.

“This work should not start until the shop owners and residents around the area know what is happening, why and when. It is not rocket science, this is communication 101,” Jones said.

As of 4.55pm Monday, shop owners said they still had not received any formal information about the works.

Salon on Rutland said they were thankful for the communication provided by Ali Jones, and had a swipe at the council’s handling of the situation, saying “communication is key and clearly lacking from CCC, very disappointing.”

The Christchurch City Council has been approached for comment.