10:57am Thursday 9th September 2010
By Lewis Cowen
Wiltshire councillor Jeff Ody has complained about the lack of advance warning given to road works that are likely to bring chaos to Devizes next week.
Scottish and Southern Electric will put up three-way lights at the junctions of Long Street with Southbroom Road and Hillworth Road as it continues to bring a power supply from the electricity substation in Hillworth Road to the new homes in Quakers Walk.
The work to install cables along London Road has already disrupted traffic flow for some weeks.
But the roadworks at the Hillworth Road junction are likely to cause gridlock next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Coun Jeff Ody said he was only aware of the impending work when contractors scrawled what he described as hieroglyphics on the road surface along Long Street between the Hillworth Road and Southbroom Road junctions.
“The roadworks received no advance publicity other than brief references to directional drilling in the weekly council traffic report.
“This is not good enough and both the public and councillors must receive better notice of such disruption from the utilities concerned.”
Maria Johnson, the owner of Hillworth Stores, said she knew nothing about the traffic lights that will be brought in.
She said: “It would have been nice if they could have told local residents it was happening.”
Long Street resident Robin Lane had also noticed the marks on the road but had no idea what they referred to until approached by the Gazette.
He said: “I would have thought it would have been a matter of courtesy to inform residents of Long Street and Hillworth Road that this was happening.”
Carole Berry, the town council’s direct services manager, said: “This will affect our parks staff, especially as we prepare for the major work at Hillworth Park. They will have to wait in the queue with everyone else.”
But a Wiltshire Council spokesman said that the works had been advertised on the council website and in the press.
The work to install the new cables along the route between Hillworth Road and London Road has been going on for some time and only reached the Long Street junction this week.
The spokesman said: “The contractors were keen to avoid the roadworks coinciding with Thursday market day, so it has been scheduled for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.”
The three-way lights will be manually controlled.
Work on the power supply to Quakers Walk is due to continue until October 8.
But while that is happening, Wales and West Utilities will start installing a gas main along Brickley Lane, between Elm Tree Gardens and London Road.
The narrow road will be controlled by lights from next Monday until February.
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