Traffic is Sudbury is in danger of grinding to a halt because of roadworks around the town, it has been claimed.
Suffolk county councillor Richard Kemp said he had tried to take his wife to work only to hit a 400m tailback in Melford Road caused by roadworks at the junction of Colneys Close.
He later tried an alternative route through East Street in the town centre only to find that closed, then ran into a further tailback on Melford Road going in the opposite direction because of works near the roundabout on the A134.
He said: “It was ridiculous. Where is the co ordination in all this? Why do we not programme these works so not to cause impact all over Sudbury?
“Frankly someone somewhere should be getting their act together, this is a zero out of ten from me.”
Fellow county councillor Jack Owen, a former mayor of the town, said the effect of so many sets of works had been to reduce traffic flow in the town to a crawl.
He said he feared the the situation would only get worse with the introduction of four way lights in Great Eastern Road at the junction of Station Road on Monday April 8 for a week long programme installing gas mains in flats being built on the site of the former Great Eastern pub.
This is a key route in the town as Great Eastern Road is the access road for the car park serving Roy’s store, Waitrose and the Kingfisher leisure centre.
The junction with Station Road is also where buses leaving the bus station join Great Eastern Road.
“There are major roads around the town with works and it’s already bad,” he said.
“When the works in Great Eastern Road begin next week it’s going to be chaos for people trying to drive around the town.
“It’s very frustrating. There seems to be no co-ordination between utility companies and Suffolk Highways.”
A spokesman for Suffolk Highways said: “The Network Assurance team carefully coordinates roadworks, whether they are highways or utilities, by considering the impact these works have on those travelling around Suffolk.
“The team are fully aware of the on-going and planned utility works in Sudbury and continue to ensure that roadworks do not clash with each other. In future, the team will not allow temporary traffic signals to operate on any main road within the area.
“We appreciate that these works can be disruptive however, to allow utility services such as gas, water and electric to continue functioning for Suffolk’s residents, improvement and repair works are unavoidable.
“We cannot stop these works from happening, but we do limit the time that utilities are allowed on site and ensure correct diversions are in place, if required we will also have the ability to fine companies for overrun or breach of working conditions.
“Where a site is found to be vacant, formal action is taken and any extension requests will be rejected due to their absence on site.”
The spokesman added that detailed information regarding particular areas of work can be requested from the service provider or by visiting the UK roadworks information website.
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