�A Hornchurch charity said it could go out of business after the council put bollards either side of its building without consulting.

The bollards went up on Wednesday morning either side of a passage from Fentiman Way to the High Street.

It is used by people to drop off goods to charities WaveLength and Sense, which are both located there.

The passage is not an official road and the council said the bollards are for health and safety reasons.

Tim Leech, chief executive of WaveLength, which provides televisions and radios to the housebound, discovered them when he arrived at work on Wednesday.

He said: “Nobody has been out to come and talk to me and there has been a lack of communication from the council. I feel like they are shutting me down.

“This means people will have to carry things a lot further and it threatens what we do as a charity and the functionality of the building.

“We have been using the building for 20 years and we should have been consulted about it.”

He added: “I can’t believe you can roll up to work and discover that the council has made a major alteration that is going to affect your business and without you knowing.”

He said deliveries of televisions and radios will be affected.

“The council has said it is a health and safety issue but we have always had access and need it.

Pedestrians

“I don’t want anybody hurt or run over, but they probably should have just put signs up to say there’s no public access and talked to us before they made any changes.”

Cllr Robert Benham, cabinet member for community empowerment, said the alleyway was resurfaced to make it safer for shoppers and visitors and to prevent vehicles driving across the pavement and endangering pedestrians.

He added: “Though we had conversations with the shops on that street, we acknowledge that we could have done more to make traders next to the alleyway aware of the installation of the bollards and are sorry if this caused any inconvenience.

“Since placing the bollards a trader has raised concerns over servicing one of the shops next to the alleyway and we are looking into this.”