Locals fume at road closure 'chaos' on high street

Work to replace gas pipes, which has led to multiple road closures in a town, has unleashed "chaos" on the high street according to local residents.

On Monday, Cadent Gas closed two adjacent routes into Witham town centre in Essex, causing congestion to build up on the nearby A12 towards Kelvedon.

Long-time Witham resident Andy Newhall, 61, described the scene as "organised chaos" and others said their journeys though the town had taken six times as long.

Cadent said it was "very conscious" of the disruption and hoped people understood it was "necessary and essential work".

Matthew Hooper, 52, is the director of Glovers Motors, which sits between the two closed junctions. His commute went up by 25 minutes on the first morning.

He said there were "two no-shows" one morning, due to the traffic.

"Trying to get in and out of our junction is a little bit of a nightmare, especially road testing customers' cars," he said.

"Yesterday afternoon, it was just tooting and screaming and shouting outside, there was a lot of frustration from the motorists."

Julia Sherlock, 60, is a three-minute drive from her place of work, but it took her 20 minutes on Tuesday.

Ms Sherlock, from Prime Appointments on the high street, says people are completely avoiding coming to Witham as a result of the traffic.

"No one's going to bother coming into town to do any shopping because it's impossible," she said.

She described the build-up of traffic as causing "mayhem" on the A12 earlier in the week.

Owner of Arnie's of Essex dog groomers, Hannah James, 35, said she got in earlier than the queues, but her customers had missed out on appointments.

"Some of them... when they've got a 10-minute journey, it's taken them 45 minutes," she said.

"It is affecting our business."

Conservative Essex County Councillor for the Witham Northern division, Ross Playle, said he was concerned that two more adjacent roads, Guilthavon Valley and Mill Lane, were also due for closure in a week's time.

"That road closure cannot go ahead... there cannot be any overlap," he told the BBC.

Essex Highways said companies seeking permits [for road closures] have to meet certain criteria, but traffic management is up to them.

However, inspectors regularly visit to ensure the works are "compliant and safe with as little disruption as possible", the authority added.

Cadent Gas said it was replacing a number of gas pipes in the area, that were "perfectly safe", but "coming to the end of their working life."

It added that the pipes were installed "around 100 years ago" when there was less traffic, and it needed to ensure engineers had a safe working area.

"We are very conscious of the disruption roadworks cause and hope people understand this is necessary and essential work, to ensure everyone's safety and maintain a reliable gas supply for your central heating systems," a spokesperson said.

Aaron Beardsley, head of operational delivery at Cadent in the east, added: "There is no intention for us at this time for us to close Mill Lane and Guithavon Valley until the works on The Avenue are complete.

"We do understand that the closure of both roads will cause further disruption to the area."

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