Priory Avenue roadworks - your view (From This is The West Country)

Priory Avenue roadworks - your view

9:10am Thursday 6th September 2012 in News

FRUSTRATED commuters and parents dropping their children off at school have been told roadworks couldn’t have been done at any other time – because of our love of sport. Trenches are being dug so electricity cables can be moved underground, where they won’t be vulnerable to high winds.

But the project, which is likely to take three weeks, has led to one lane being closed, loss of parking spaces and diversions. People have complained of “deadlock” traffic jams during the work, which started last week in Priory Avenue, Taunton.

To view footage from a cyclist riding through the tailbacks last night, see below.

And there has been criticism that the timing, at the start of the school year, was not ideal – see our ‘Your Say’ comments below.

But a Somerset County Council spokesman said: “Moving this high voltage cable underground will mean that one of the main supplies of electricity to Taunton is protected from potential damage by high winds before winter begins. “It couldn’t have been done sooner in the year because of the Olympic celebration events in Taunton and the impact it would have had on traffic to Somerset County Cricket Club.”

YOUR SAY: PETE GANGE: “It’s got to be done. There’s never a good time, but we’ve been informed of what’s happening. Maybe it is a nuisance, but it would have been worse if they’d left it any later with bad weather and the Christmas rush.”

KATE LONG: “Everybody’s complaining about rush hour. It deadlock at times between 8am and 9am and 5pm and 6pm. St Augustine Street is also getting busy because people coming into town are going that way and those leaving are trying to avoid Priory Avenue. And it’s difficult trying to cross the road at times.”

STEPHEN NORTHCOTE-BREWER: “It’s bad timing just before the schools went back – they had six weeks over the school holidays to do it. Now as well as all the children, there’ll be parents returning to work.”

EMILY HALL: “It’s not great timing just before the schools go back.” NICK GREEN: “I commute into the town centre every day. It’s never easy, but it’s got worse with the roadworks. But I suppose they’ve got to do it some time.”