LENGTHY roadworks could effectively seal off parts of Melksham as a summer of tailbacks and congestion looms.

Two main routes out of the town centre will undergo weeks of roadworks, which will stretch well into the summer months.

Gas engineers from Transco are digging up the main road to replace 160 metres of pipe.

Meanwhile work began this week on Beanacre Road where Wessex Water engineers are installing a new water main. Work is expected to continue on the busy stretch of the A350 until mid June.

In Forest Road hundreds of residents are bracing themselves for up to ten weeks of disruption as Ringway Parkman install a £75,000 traffic calming scheme.

Work started last week and is scheduled to continue until May at the earliest. Up to 600 residents signed a petition against the work with councillors claiming they were "blackmailed" into accepting final designs.

To add to the misery, Church Lane was sealed off this week for Sahara civil engineers to install a new sewage system on the Old Dairy site.

Mayor Vic Oakman said the multiple roadwork projects would create total chaos in Melksham.

He said: "We are inundated with chaos. They have made a slow start to the Forest Road project and by the look of it work will take 100 weeks.

"I think things could have been better planned. We have resigned ourselves to the fact the Forest Road project is going ahead.

"When the first accident happens we will be saying 'I told you so'."

Landlady Jean Gritten, who runs the Pig and Whistle pub in Forest Road, with her husband Don, said customers thought the work was a waste of time.

She said: "It is a terrible time. There is no way out of Melksham.

"I think people think this project is a waste of time. The roundabout planned for outside out pub is going to cause more accidents. There have never been any accidents outside. I hope all the work won't affect trade. We are hoping things will still tick over."

Speed humps, raised tables, a mini roundabout and 20mph zone will be installed in Forest Road within the next two months.

More than 600 residents objected to the scheme but county councillors pushed it through at a meeting in February.