A four-week road closure with an eight-mile diversion route may cause “chaos” for drivers in Wiltshire.

Wales and West will carry out a gas main upgrade from Monday, November 18, which will close Hook Road at the Coped Hall junction.

The official diversion route sends drivers on a 7.5 mile workaround, though there are concerns that some will use narrow and unsuitable lanes like Flaxlands Lane and Hook Street instead.

The closure will also affect access to the nearby care home, hotel, and other businesses, and make it difficult for people to attend the Flaxlands Solar Park consultation event at Hook Village Hall.

Cllr Steve Bucknell asked Wiltshire Council’s Highways team to reconsider the closure as he worried about “a likelihood of chaos”.

Cllr Bucknell received a response from the county authority’s Highways team which he then shared in a social media post.

He said: “Unfortunately they cannot delay the closure or reduce it to traffic lights.”

The response read: “All gas companies must replace all their metallic mains within 30 meters of a residential property by 2030.

“The gas main in Royal Wootton Bassett is classified as a Tier One which means it had to be prioritised still further.

“This work will help them ensure a reliable gas supply to their homes and reduce the risk of leaks/bursts within 30 meters of their property.

“Wiltshire Council needs these works completed and off the network by the beginning of the year as we have other works queued up that need to use this route as part of their diversion route.

“They are unable to reduce the program any further – they would if they could.

“The works are being undertaken using a moling technique that is not using traditional open cut trenches - that would have extended the duration still further to five or possibly six weeks.

“The works cannot be undertaken during the school holidays as the duration is too long, and they cannot be delayed until the summer holidays.

“ On busy routes where multiple heads are required, the flow of traffic can be badly impacted by having multiple signals heads.

“To reduce the number of signal heads we sometime close a side road, which in this case is Hook Road. This is a solution we have used at this location in the past and it does work.

“We must at all costs ensure traffic does not back up on to the M4 motorway as that would be exceedingly dangerous.

“We have agreed to close Hook Road in this instance to increase the efficiency through the work zone with the three remaining signal heads.

“We appreciate that this will obviously impact the residence and businesses north of Hook Road the most.

“However, it must be remembered that the traffic will be moving much more efficiently in Royal Wootton Bassett than if there was a signal head on Hook Road as well.

“It should also be noted that Hook Road entrance and exit onto the A3102 will have a trench across it for two weeks in any case as that section does need to be open cut.

"So a two-week closure is a requirement even if it was not being closed as part of the overarching traffic management plan that we believe is the best solution to keep traffic moving in this instance.

“I appreciate this is not the response you will have been hoping for. However, I trust it confirms our position in terms of trying to facilitate these essential works on our network with the least disruption to network users.”

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