Stratford-upon-Avon residents have criticised long-running roadworks on one of the town’s busiest routes that have left traffic at a standstill and some people unable to access their own homes.
According to the BBC, work has been taking place on Birmingham Road since at least April, as part of work designed to improve traffic flow into the town centre.
One blind resident said he was “scared” to cross the road because the temporary pedestrian crossing kept being moved by workers.
Warwickshire County Council has apologised for the disruption and said it was working with the contractor to make sure the final two weeks of works were completed as smoothly as possible.
James Harrison started to lose his sight in 2019 and now relies on safety features on the pavement surface and a rotary device on pedestrian crossing controls to cross roads safely.
“It’s become so bad, that I don’t even go to the gym up here any more,” he said. “I’m scared to cross the road in case I walk into oncoming traffic – there’s been a number of near misses.
“They are just moving things around so much – the temporary crossing has moved multiple times during the works and the current one is right next to a fence, which I can’t see, and it doesn’t make a sound, so how do I know how to cross?”
Brenda Ashfield, meanwhile, lives on the road and the temporary traffic lights are currently right outside her front door.
“We had little to no notice of this work, I’m not very mobile and at one point I couldn’t get to my front door,” she said. “We’ve been in Stratford 49 years and I’ve never known anything like this, the noise, the traffic, and the lights, they are always stuck on red.”
Guy Esnouf travels into Stratford from outside of town and uses the Birmingham Road on a regular basis.
“It is just standing room only along this road, it’s become a bit of local joke, a comedy of errors if you will. This is one of the busiest roads in Warwickshire – the traffic during the works just shows you how poorly thought out this has been.”
Trade has also been affected in the town, businesses say.
In a statement, Warwickshire County Council said: “We accept that, as with all highways improvement schemes, people’s journeys have been disrupted.
“Wherever possible, we have tried to adapt to minimise the impact, and we have continuously responded to residents queries.”
(Pic: Mapillary)
