Anger as roadworks cause traffic chaos

They are angry that Curzon Street has been shut for the next eight weeks as part of a scheme to make the town centre more pedestrian friendly and to create a 20mph zone in the narrow part of Curzon Street.

Ala Uddin, manager of the Spice of Bengal on Curzon Street, was upset by the closure. He said: "I have spoken to most of the shopkeepers and everyone is unhappy."

Brian Heath, who lives in Rookery Park and works in the town centre, has given up driving into work because of the traffic.

He said: "It's going to go from bad to worse. When Curzon Street is narrowed it's just going to cause a bottleneck."

Mr Heath said fumes from all the traffic queuing up were building up in London Road during the rush.

Paul Kennedy, owner of Paul's Car of Calne, said the road works have caused a major problem.

"People aren't going to want to pay more than their average fare even though we have to drive all the way around Calne.

"People ask for cabs and it should take us five or ten minutes for us to get there but it takes about 30 minutes," he said.

Sophie Perkins of Nails at Length in Curzon Street, said people had been late for appointments because of the traffic but felt customers just needed to allow extra time.

Coun John Ireland, who voted against the plans when they were endorsed by the town council, said he still did not see any need to narrow the road.

"I was against it from word go but it came in with the previous council and it was endorsed by this council.

"My main problem is that narrowing the road will make the problems worse because Curzon Street is extremely narrow already," he said.

"There's now going to be a priority system which is only going to make the traffic problems in the centre worse and they are saying this is a way of getting people to go on the Beversbrook bypass. But the only way this will happen is for another ring road on the south of the town."

Coun Ireland said a one-way system using The Pippin and Castle Street would have been a more sensible idea.

A statement from Wiltshire County Council asked motorists to bear with the road works in order to create a safer road in the future.

"We are undertaking work to implement the 20mph scheme on Curzon Street to improve the area to make it safer for pedestrians," the statement said.

"The existing narrow road means that the work cannot be carried out under traffic signals. In addition closing the road will mean that the work will be done more quickly, it will be safer for both workmen and drivers, and because it is carried out more quickly it will cost less.

"We understand as well as anybody the disruption that road works such as this can cause and all we can do is try to minimize it.

"In fact this work was postponed from before Christmas so as not to disrupt the town and local trade at the busiest time of year.

"The work, however, needs to be done and we are doing everything we can to make sure that it is done as quickly as possible with the minimum of inconvenience."