One of Shrewsbury’s busiest road junctions could be closed to allow the new £18 million B&Q store to be built – just weeks after essential sewerage works are completed.
The Harlescott crossroads will be given an extra lane from the Featherbed Lane approach to feed into the new store on the former Inchcape site. But work on the scheme is not expected to start until April at the earliest – and current works to repair sewers on the junction with Featherbed Lane are not due to be finished until April 11.
County council officials have remained tight-lipped about the timescale and exact details of any closures, but have confirmed a new lane will be included on Featherbed Lane and that closures will take place during certain periods of building work.
Planning permission for the B&Q store was granted in November 2006 but a start date for building work has still not been formally announced.
Traders in the area have already hit out at the effect the sewer repairs are having on their business, and have argued customers and staff were severely affected when the £15 million Tesco Extra store was built at the junction last April.
The 10-week sewerage works being carried out by Severn Trent started on Monday and sees restrictions in place on the Whitchurch Road approach to the crossroads while the Featherbed Lane turning is closed completely.
The news comes just weeks after the Chronicle revealed county transport officials plan to close St Mary’s Street and Dogpole for eight weeks as part of the final phase of the Town Centre Enhancement scheme.
Mark Wootton, Shropshire County Council principal officer for highways and development control, said: “We are in discussion with consultants with regard to the design layout in order to improve the existing situation – that will include a new lane on Featherbed Lane.
“We will try to coordinate works to minimise disruption to traffic in the locality, and this may include some work during night-time as happened with the Tesco store. It’s a possibility that work could start around April.”
Les Garlick, managing director of William A Lewis Cars based on Featherbed Lane, said: “The road is to be closed for weeks and we will suffer – there will be further disruption and the road will be closed again when B&Q develop the Inchcape site next to us. I do not understand why such disruptive projects cannot be better organised and done at the same time.”
Eileen Sandford, councillor for the Harlescott ward, said the Severn Trent works were causing major disruption and affecting businesses adversely.
“It is very disruptive as there is such a heavy flow of traffic up there at that junction. Businesses seem to have been hit time and time again by work like this.”
A spokesperson for Severn Trent Water said: “We are fully aware that this sort of work is disruptive but there’s simply no other way to replace these sewers.
“While in the short term there will be disruption for which we are very sorry, there will be long term benefits which outweigh the inconvenience.”
No-one from B&Q was available to comment as the Chronicle went to press.