Busy Melton town centre road set to reopen tomorrow two weeks ahead of schedule

Market Place was closed last Friday to enable Severn Trent Water to do the work safely and it was anticipated the job would take three weeks.

But contractors have called into businesses on Market Place and Leicester Street, the road it leads into, to say it was due to reopen tomorrow.

We are awaiting confirmation from the water company on what time the road will open again to vehicles.

Delays have been experienced at peak periods with drivers travelling from Burton Street diverted through Sherrard Street, Thorpe End, Norman Way and Wilton Road, and vice versa.

Rattling drain covers, which have disturbed business people and residents for months, were due to be repaired on Leicester Street while Market Place was closed.

But they have still not been fixed and traders are unhappy about the delay and the prospect of the road having to be closed again to enable this work to be completed.

Photographer Sarah Browne, who works at Derek Whitehouse Photography on nearby Church Street, said: “They are going to have to shut the road again to do these drains now - I can’t believe they can’t co-ordinate these two schemes.

“We’ve all had enough of the noise from these drain covers every time a car goes over them.

“You can even hear them from the car park near the council offices and every time I make a phone call upstairs at work I have to close the window because of the noise.”

Leicestershire County Council, which has fielded a series of complaints about the covers on Leicester Street, close to the Boots store, is set to carry out the repair work to stop them rattling when vehicles pass over them.

We are awaiting a comment from the authority about when the work will be done.