A 20ft gantry to display road information on the M6 is being built near residents’ homes six months after an agreement that it would be sited elsewhere.

Furious householders in Murdoch Way, on the Beechdale estate, Walsall, said the fiasco was the latest in a list of problems over major roadworks to open up the hard shoulder to motorists during peak times. They said it was agreed in April that the gantry, which will display speed limits, travel times and traffic information, would be erected 25 yards down the road.

It would be near a home with no large windows overlooking the motorway.

But workers have drilled holes ready for the structure in its original position and residents say they have been told they must now put up with it.

Alan Sanders, aged 48, chairman of Murdock Way Residents Association, said: “It was agreed that the gantry would be moved to the end of Brindley Close.

“What they have done all along is mislead all the residents of Murdock Way. We cannot stop this but they need to stop misleading us and they need to be honest.

“This is going to have a big effect on people who want to sell their houses.”

Residents have already lost trees which shielded homes from the southbound carriageway, and there has been a string of occasions when they were given little or no notice of overnight working.

Highways Agency spokesman Anthony Aston said: “The gantry in question has been positioned to ensure that the illuminated southbound signage is as unobtrusive as reasonably possible to the residents of Murdock Way and Brindley Close.”