Market Drayton roadworks are finished at last

One of Shropshire's longest running roadworks finally came to an end yesterday - to the relief of local businesses.

Members of Market Drayton Chamber of Trade and Commerce say they are looking forward to things returning to normal following the reopening of the A529 at Phoenix Bank.

But they have revealed their frustrations that work on the bank wasn't completed sooner and want Shropshire Council to compensate the local traders for the delays.

The road has been closed since early January to enable repairs be carried out to part of a wall in front of the Old Grammar School garden, which suffered from a landslip more than a year ago.

A section of the wall behind St Mary's churchyard gave way in February last year, allowing rubble to be dislodged and leading to temporary traffic lights being introduced until the repair work could start.

The work was originally due to be finished at the beginning of this month, but was put back to March 18 after engineers discovered the damage to the wall was worse than first thought.

Today Andy Brown, chairman of Market Drayton Chamber of Trade and Commerce, said: "Phoenix Bank is a major route into Market Drayton and the road should have been cleared immediately after the collapse.

"This would have avoided the delays residents, retailers and visitors to the town centre have had to contend with.

"If this had happened in Shrewsbury, I'm sure the council would have done the work straight away and recompensed the local traders.

"Shropshire Council needs to offer the town compensation for the losses it has suffered in the past year due to their complacency.

"We are pleased the road is now open and look forward to trade going back to normal."

John Williams, Shropshire Council's team leader for structures, said: "We appreciate that closing this road for just over eight weeks caused some inconvenience. However, this closure was essential to carry out the complex repair work necessary.

"Unfortunately, the road was too narrow to enable it to be kept open safely when the work was underway."