A hair salon in Hay-on-Wye is being forced to close on Christmas Eve, almost a year after its front window was destroyed by a car.

Hey Hair, which is also home to a beauticians, in Castle Street closed for three days earlier this year after an alleged hit-and-run car crash which took out the front of the shop in the early hours of Monday, January 22.

Despite temporary repair work to support it, the building is still in need of repairs almost 11 months later.

The salon owner Rebecca Whitney, 34, said her business insurance would only cover her for 12 months of ongoing work but the window replacement and building repairs have not even started yet.

She said: “If we did close for repairs, it wouldn’t cover loss of earnings.”

The car crash shattered the glass and demolished the traditional grey bricks under the shop’s bay window.

The front wall of the grade II-listed building had also buckled from the impact of the crash.

However the hairdresser, who lives in Hay, was quoted various prices for the repairs from £50,000 to £100,000 due to the listed status of the building. Ms Whitney said: “Basically we’ve been forced to close because our insurance only covers 12 months of work and the crash happened in January last year.

“We have no natural light coming in, and it’s all boarded up. Our product sales have dropped by about 50% according to my accounts because we no longer have the window product displays.

“We have two seats we can’t use because it’s too dark for us to work there. Rain comes in as well through the boarded up window and it leaks all across the salon.”

Ms Whitney and her landlord have been chasing their insurers, NFU Mutual, in an attempt to save the shop. “I have no idea why it’s taken so long,” she added. “We’ve been chasing our insurance, so has my landlady because we both have the same insurers, but neither of us have got anywhere”.

She said: “It feels a bit like they’ve just been fobbing us off really – they’ve kept telling us they’re doing something but if that is the case, why hasn’t anything happened?

“I would like to thank my accountant Denise from Mitchell Meredith who has tried to help.

“Hay Town councillor Gareth Ratcliffe has also tried to hurry the window (repair work) along but with no joy.”

Ms Whitney has run the salon for nine years and Christine Illingsworth has worked as a hairdresser in the building for 37 years.

The building, which is owned by a landlord, hosts Ms Whitney who owns the hair salon and shares the premises with beauty salon Cutie-Kels which is owned by Kelly Shannon.

Ms Whitney said: “We’re all really upset. We were telling some more of our customers this morning that we were closing – one of our customers, a lady who comes all the way from Hereford for us to do her hair, was really upset.

“Both me and Christine are going mobile for now – it has been very emotional and quite sad.

“We’re closing for the last time on Christmas Eve, it is a shame because it’s usually a really happy time of the year isn’t it? We can’t even put a Christmas tree up or a Christmas window display because we don’t have the window space to put it this year.”

During the week after the accident, Dyfed-Powys Police arrested a 32-year-old man from Hay-on-Wye on suspicion of failing to stop at a collision, driving while unfit through drink or drugs and criminal damage.

The driver is understood to have pleaded guilty in the summer, however there have been no updates on the prosecution since.

A woman was a passenger the car at the time of the crash and she was taken to hospital as a precaution.

Ms Whitney said: “Me and Chris would like to say thank you to all of customers for the continued support over the years.”

Jonathan Cassidy, an agent at NFU Mutual in Hay-on-Wye said: “Even though this claim is complex, involving planning procedures for a grade II listed building, it has still taken longer to resolve than we would normally expect.

“We are working closely with all parties involved and are sorry it has taken so long to sort out.”