YEOVIL residents “can’t get across town” as a result of several sets of roadworks causing traffic “chaos”, a town councillor has claimed.

Yeovil is currently the scene of several sets of roadworks, including the closure of Hendford Hill near the Horsey Lane roundabout and pavement improvements along Combe Street Lane at the town’s northern edge.

Councillor Adrian Wilkes, the independent councillor for the Abbey Manor South ward on Yeovil Town Council, took to social media recently to criticise Somerset Council for allowing so many sets of roadworks to happen simultaneously, claiming it was preventing people from getting to work.

Somerset Council has apologised for the disruption, but stated much of the work had to be prioritised since it affected local utilities including gas and water.

Mr Wilkes posted his comments on the ‘Yeovil News and Views’ Facebook page on Wednesday morning (October 2), stating: “This chaos with traffic can’t go on.

“These simultaneous road closures are having a huge impact, not just on people needing to travel for personal reasons, but local businesses and self- employed people are now being heavily impacted.

“We simply can not get around the town due to the simultaneous works.

“All of the roads into our town are either closed or have temporary traffic lights on them. People are having to cancel work because they literally cannot get across a town which is no more than a couple miles across.”

Mr Wilkes said he could not understand the council’s intentions to close Larkhill Road from Monday (October 7) simply because the work on Hendford Hill would be ending around the same time.

He elaborated: “Larkhill Road, which is currently at a standstill due to the chaos [on Combe Street Lane], is also planned to be closed off in one direction next week.

“The pressure on the northern part of town is mainly due to Coombe St Lane being closed. Yet they [Somerset Council are basing their decision to close Larkhill Road on opening Hendford Hill? What logic is in force there?”

Numerous local residents concurred with Mr Wilkes’ sentiments, arguing that the multiple roadworks had not been properly planned out by the council.

Aimeé Cairncross Farrant said: “It’s an absolute nightmare if you live on the west side of town.

“Who in their right mind allows, or plans, for all of these closures to happen at the same time?

“Yeovil is like one giant one way system as it is because of shockingly poor planning and now it’s challenging the M25 for the title of the country’s biggest car park.”

Gerry Watts said: “People will have to start sleeping in their offices to make sure they get into work on time.

“I feel sorry for people who have appointments at the hospital.”

Jed Lampitt added: “The knock-on effect from having Combe Street Lane shut, even one way, is massive – and this causes traffic spill over all over town.

“It’s a complete pain in the arse.”

Somerset Council said that the majority of the roadworks taking place concerned local utilities, which had to be prioritised to reduce long-term disruption to local residents and businesses.

A spokesman said: “There is some essential gas supply work being done on Hendford Hill in Yeovil at the moment, which is putting significant pressure on the network and we apologise for the inconvenience this is causing.

“Wales and West Utilities is upgrading pipes under a road closure. That is having a knock-on effect on routes into town, particularly the A30, Lysander Road and the Cartgate Link Road, but they are due to complete this work on Friday (October 4).

“This week, there has also been a huge water leak on Rowan Way, spilling 127,000 litres an hour.

“Wessex Water is trying to resolve this under an emergency closure which has caused some local disruption.

“These kinds of issues are common and it is not possible to foresee them, they just have to be accommodated on the network.

“We work with utility operators to try and manage the network and minimise the impact of any work, making changes where we can improve things, and we’re in constant contact with all utilities to try to mitigate disruption.

“On average there are over 800 requests every week to access the road network in Somerset, most of which are made by utilities companies.”

The council said it was endeavouring to balance utility work with other improvements to Yeovil’s road network – such as the upgrades to Combe Street Lane and the new electricity supply being installed to power Yeovil Hospital’s new cancer care unit.

The spokesman added: “Our highways team has to balance this utility work with important ongoing work for the council and other agencies.

“On the A30 Reckleford, there is work being done to supply the hospital’s new cancer care unit with electricity, and there is some pavement improvement work being done on Combe Street Lane which is creating some delays on the A37 Ilchester Road.

“These can add to the pressure on the network, but it is not possible to stagger works which have already been scheduled and started.

“Ultimately utilities are a priority for residents and this kind of work can’t be avoided.

“It sometimes has to overlap with other work, but we do understand people’s frustrations, especially when there is significant disruption and our team is looking closely at all schemes both ongoing and scheduled in Yeovil, to see how pressure on the network can be reduced and to relieve some of the delays and disruption we have seen in the last week.”