Residents glad busy route will be repaired
8:00am Saturday 23rd March 2013 in News By Matthew Edwards
Oxford Road will be closed in June for roadworks.
RESIDENTS have welcomed plans to close one of the town’s busiest roads for vital re-surfacing works.
People living in Oxford Road say they are pleased with the news that Swindon Council plans to resurface the road after a number of cracks and pot holes have developed.
The work will mean in a three-week closure of the trunk road into Swindon from Oxford and the A419, on June 10, between Sandgate and Burden Close.
Drivers experienced traffic headaches last summer when Wales and West Utilities partially closed the road for several months for gas works, but residents say this work is needed.
Jim Leonard, 72, of Oxford Road, said the works had been planned to take place at the end of this month but was postponed due to a lack of notice.
He has been living at his home for 32 years and said he has noticed the steady increase in traffic along the road. And with articulated lorries driving just eight metres from his home, the cracks in the road cause his house to shake and creak.
He said: “We want the road resurfaced, but the person in charge believed that not enough notification had been given so that is why it was postponed.
“When the lorries drive over the fissures in the road the house creaks, and one night the wardrobe doors popped open in our bedroom.
“I will definitely welcome the resurfacing, as long as they do it properly and it is not just patches.”
Tracey Baker, of Oxford Road, has also welcomed the plans as long as residents have access to their homes during the works.
She said: “The work is needed, so as long as we can get access then I think it will be a very good thing.
“When the work was done last year there was a back-log of traffic, but there are alternative routes.
“This road is getting a lot busier but as long as the work is well thought through I would welcome it.”
A spokesman for the council said: “There will still be access for residents and we will be putting up signs to warn motorists in advance of the work.
“Diversion signs will also be in place with the diversion route being via Dorcan Way, Covingham Drive and Merlin way and vice versa.”
