Lyme Regis businesses are looking to bounce back from the town centre road closure that caused major disruption in the lead up to Christmas.

After a partial building collapse in November forced a section of Broad Street to close, businesses saw a drop off in trade – largely put down to diversion signs miles from the town centre putting visitors off.

Lyme was described as a 'ghost town' as visitors stayed away. 

The road reopened a week before Christmas - and now local traders have taken the opportunity to use the incident to help promote the small businesses that help the town to thrive.

A meeting has been arranged for Monday, January 8 to allow discussions to take place about forming a traders' association.

The association is aimed at allowing the businesses to support each other, show a positive feeling of unity and promote the retail and hospitality the town has to offer.

READ: Lyme Regis business worries over closed Broad Street

Georgina Baker, who runs The Millside restaurant in the town, is one of the business owners looking to promote the town’s small and independent traders.

Talking about Monday’s meeting, she said: “We are looking for a stronger standing point to work together and strengthen our unity as small business owners.

“It is important to have that type of community – Lyme Regis is a really community-driven town.

“The majority of shops are small and run by families and individuals – it’s a rare thing for a whole town to be that way.

READ: Impact of Lyme Regis Broad Street closure on traders

“It is an important and crucial time going into January, so we are making positive efforts to encourage footfall and for people to come to our town.

"Most businesses are staying open, they normally close at this time of year, but it wasn’t a particularly crazy summer.

“We are a positive group of people and are super passionate of what we do."

This all comes after a meeting with the town council, regarding the road closure on Broad Street, and led to some of the town's traders coming together and organising a Christmas market at the Rock Point Inn prior to Christmas.

The businesses were keen to put out the message that the town was still very much open for business during the festive season, and Georgina was keen to point out that the energy amongst traders is still very much there.

READ: Lyme Regis town centre roadworks planned for new year

Bridport and Lyme Regis News: the baby Boutique was one of the traders to set up a stall at the Christmas marketthe baby Boutique was one of the traders to set up a stall at the Christmas market (Image: Supplied)

She added: “It was really busy, it was a really good turnout.

"Some people said it was one of their best nights for the whole month – the community felt it had come together and you could see the support and drive behind it.

“The brewery at the Rock Point offered free mulled wine and pigs in blankets as well as space for 21 stalls which were offered to high street shops in Lyme Regis.

“The more we support each other the more chance we all have of survival.

“Lyme Regis is most definitely open for business and even with closures in place the people behind the doors of the businesses need the public to still make that journey in order to keep this pretty seaside town alive.”