Residents hit out at road closure

8:30am Wednesday 2nd July 2008

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ANGRY residents have hit out at the council's highways department for closing a road, which links their small village to places with more amenities, without telling them.

Furious Kingswood residents are annoyed that they were not told that the Charfield Road was to be closed and will remain shut until the end of August.

"The village is up in arms about this road closure," said Danny Laskey, a local resident.

"No one in the village was told about this closure, there is no sign to say why the road is closed or for how long.

"The county council just doesn't care about us down here. Why do they have to close off the whole road? They could put a traffic light system in and have traffic going down one side."

Mr Laskey, a travelling salesman, said he usually buys his fuel from a garage in Charfield but has recently had to abandon this because it takes much longer to get there.

He added: "As a travelling salesman I use the road about 70 per cent of my time so it is causing a lot of problems for me.

"It is just ridiculous to close the road for so long and not to tell us."

David Rocky, chairman of Kingswood Parish Council, said: "The road closure is causing lots of traffic and heavy goods vehicles to be diverted through the town, which is dangerous and causes chaos at busy times.

"We are talking to the council and the developers about the possibilty of opening one side of the carriageway on a traffic light system."

The parish council was given very short notice of the road closure.

This was because the developers of the new housing development on the Charfield Road only planned to close one side of the road.

A spokeswoman for Gloucestershire Highways said: "The developer requested the use of temporary traffic lights to allow for excavations on one side of the carriageway.

"But we had a complaint from a resident living in Charfield Road who believed it would be too dangerous for pedestrians to walk if just one lane was in operation.

"We sent out an officer to inspect the site and he agreed that it was not safe.

"As a result an emergency road closure was put in place and that is why the usual site notices were not put up.

"Gloucestershire Highways would like to apologise for any inconvenience this closure may cause."