Drivers face four weeks of misery in roadworks

Motorists in a South Staffordshire village will face four weeks of roadworks at a busy crossroads as £75,000 of vital repair works are carried out.

Temporary traffic lights will be set up along the A462 at the junction of Bursnips Road and Essington Road, Essington, for the month-long project carried out by the county council.

Its highways team will replace damaged kerbs and ironworks, and resurface the road and pavements.

The Bursnips Road crossroads with Sneyd Lane and Upper Sneyd Road will also be resurfaced, with both of the smaller roads due to be closed throughout the project.

Diversions will be in place along Brownshore Lane, and vehicles will be diverted away from Sneyd Lane along Crab Lane and Lichfield Road.

County councillor Mike Lawrence said the work would make the roads safer for drivers. "The team will be working hard to keep disruption to an absolute minimum but, as with any improvement project, a certain amount is inevitable," he said.

Parish council chairman and local district councillor David Clifft said: "This is a major headache for the village. It is a huge problem for residents and businesses.

"People are already facing a 10-mile round trip if they want to avoid the Featherstone roadworks which have already blighted the village for a couple of months.

"The latest repairs are on a main artery for people travelling from the village to Willenhall, Walsall or Wolverhampton.

"My real concern is that every time we have roadworks in this area there seems to be a snag that delays their completion."

Much of the disruption in Featherstone stems from the development of a new prison that has just opened.