Small claims against sole traders- any experiences or should I just cut my losses?

So it's becoming increasingly likely that someone I paid to do some work in my garden is not going to complete. Work originally started in April and still incomplete. Even the stuff that is "complete" remains unfinished. The money has been paid because despite assurances before the work started i.e. deposit was enough until work completed he came looking for more and with the garden half dug up it's a very hard to argue.

So the work remaining is some concrete probably less than 1 meter cubed, linking some drainage channel with storm drain.

He was supposed to come on Thursday, no show. I contacted him today and he said he wasn't able to come until Monday. He doesn't bother to let me know when he won't show up. At this point it's past the point of being funny. Ive asked him to come this evening, saturday/sunday and finish the remaining work. He's given multiple assurances of completion prior to this and its still not there.

At this point im considering getting someone else up to quote for the remaining work and requesting money back.

I've been too nice and perhaps that's why I'm in this problem but at this stage I'm thinking its time to cut losses. Any advice on how to proceed?