More driving misery as main road stays shut

MOTORISTS face a day of delays in Delph after the closure of the main street by workmen.

MOTORISTS today faced a second day of travel misery in Delph after the main road through the village was shut off yesterday.

Commuters were thrown into confusion when water company, United Utilities, blocked off King Street near the Millgate Theatre, preventing cars travelling through the village.

Frustrated drivers had to make three-point turns in the middle of the narrow high street as the company dug up the tarmac to replace a leaking pipe from a row of terrace houses.

The upheaval is the latest traffic woe for Delph, as residents become increasingly angry over speeding cars using the quaint village as a commuter rat-run at peak times.

A concerned volunteer at the village’s library said: “The traffic is usually pretty horrendous around here anyway and rush hour seems to last all day.

“It only takes a bus or heavy lorry and the whole place comes to a standstill, and that is when the road is open!

“People will have to turn around and if you don’t know the roads I imagine it would be a nightmare.”

Irate motorists were yesterday driving up and down the village, struggling to work out alternative routes around the disruption due to the lack of diversion signs in place.

Witnesses said they saw a 20ft plume of water shooting into the air above the library shortly before 2pm yesterday, when it is thought the workmen hit a water pipe. But the leak was the least of the village’s worries as the work prevented buses from running their usual routes and worsening the congestion along the road, already lined with parked cars.

Parish councillor Ken Hulme, who lives in Delph Lane, said: “The traffic is bad on a normal day.

“Just how many times do they need to dig up the road in Delph and cause yet more disruption for local residents.

“If they haven’t put up enough signs it will definitely make a lot of people’s journeys a misery.”

The local councillor has recently started to circulate a traffic questionnaire in Delph.

Asking local opinion on measures such as a 20mph speed limit, the survey is the result of a highly-charged residents’ meeting earlier this year where suggestions of how to calm the traffic in the village were put forward.

United Utilities said that the road would be resurfaced today with the aim of reopening at 4pm this afternoon in time for the rush-hour traffic.

The company was carrying out the work under its current scheme in which it will tend to leaks for free during the hosepipe ban, even if they are private pipes.

An alternative route via Delph Lane and Huddersfield Road will allow commuters to make it round the road closure.