Residents concerned over eight-day closure of Thorpe Road

Cars and lorries turning into Stafford Avenue, Melton, a year ago to avoid the Thorpe Road closure - the road will be closed again for eight days next month

The road was closed for more than a month from December 2022 to January 2023 to allow Severn Trent to safely repair a collapsed sewer.

During that period many motorists used Algernon Road, Kings Road and Stafford Avenue to get around the closure with residents complaining about the disruption from the extra traffic and some saying their cars were damaged.

Thorpe Road closes again from Monday March 4, at 10am, to 11.59pm on Tuesday March 12, to enable Snowdon Homes to carry out drainage work and construct an access road to its housing development on the former St Mary’s Hospital site.

Leicestershire County Council highways, which has agreed to the latest temporary closure has called on drivers to use designated diversions – on main routes such as the A607, A606 and A1 – rather than narrow back streets.

A County Hall spokeswoman told the Melton Times: “As the local highway authority, we work to ensure there are no road closure clashes, and this work has been scheduled in at the most appropriate time taking into consideration other necessary work on the road network in the locality.

“A clearly signposted official diversion route will be implemented onto the National Highways network that HGVs can use, with temporary weight limit restrictions being put in place on Melton Spinney Road, and we encourage road users in the area to follow this to minimise disruption.”

Nearby residents, Bryan Paton, renewed calls for a temporary one-way system to be introduced on Kings Road and Algernon Road to reduce the impact on people living there during the closure.

He contacted the Melton Times to say: “As a resident of Algernon Road I had my car hit last time it was closed and loads of others had theirs hit on Algernon and Kings Road.”

The county council say HGV drivers should be kept away by following the official diversion route via the A607, A1 and A606.

The authority previously ruled out a one-way system on Algernon and Kings Road because it did not want to encourage motorists to use narrow residential back streets or to limit residents parking on their own streets.