LARGE machinery being brought to Berkeley Power Station to aid the decommissioning process will cause traffic disruptions at the start of next month.

The wide loads will travel through the centre of the town on Tuesday, July 1.

The nuclear power plant has been undergoing decommissioning work since its closure in 1989.

As part of this, giant 310 tonne boilers were removed from the site and driven through Berkeley on flat-bed lorries last year.

A spokeswoman for Magnox, who mange the power plant, said the latest load would be nowhere near the scale of the boiler moves to Sharpness Docks.

The two new wide loads, travelling under police escort, are bringing sections of a large winch tower which will be used on site as part of the on-going decommissioning activities.

The Brokk arm, arriving in two sections, will be used as part of the retrievals project in the vaults of the power plant.

It will be used to reach waste in the subterranean vaults. With a full extension length of 11m, the Brokk can reach the corners of the vaults which are the size of close to four squash courts.

They have been tested off site at a facility in Barnsley in South Yorkshire.

They will leave the M5 southbound at junction 14 at around 9am and travel along the B4509, A38 and B4066 to Berkeley.

As the lowloaders will be driving at around 10mph, they are expected to cause some traffic disruption during the morning.

Parking restrictions will be in place in the centre of Berkeley from 9am until around 12pm.

There will be no on-street parking on Canonbury Street, along past the Berkeley Arms and outside shops and then again on the narrow stretch of Lynch Road.

For more information about the restrictions, contact Claire Huggard on 01453 814447 or email claire.huggard@magnoxsites.com