Red Hill blues

Residents in the south east of the Cosford Division, especially those living in Aldham and Elmsett, will be pleased to know that the works on Red Hill are scheduled to finish today.  This means that the road should be reopened by the weekend and journeys to Hadleigh much simplified.

The burst water main that closed the road almost two months ago developed into a series of further problems which meant that works continued much longer than anticipated.  Alternative routes took drivers along very narrow roads, or almost to Ipswich and back,  so a good deal of traffic chaos, and some damage to verges and field edges, ensued.  The problems were not helped by the fact that the leaks arose in the holiday period. It did seem to casual observers that there was something of a shortage of workmen present on site, although local residents tell me that those that were there worked really hard!

There is little that the County Council can do legally to speed matters like this along.  The utilities have a statutory right to road closures, and all we can do is chivvy them along.  The letter sent from Aldham Parish Council to the Managing Director of Anglian Water probably did more good than our officers' nagging in the background.  There was, apparently, a marked increase in activity shortly after the letter was sent, and a reply was received from the company quite speedily.

Suffolk County Council Highways did take the opportunity to do some of its own repairs to damaged crash barriers while the road was closed, and, I understand that the programme to  lay cables for the Better Broadband programme has not been delayed by the road closure.

I believe that there will need to be a further closure of Cosford Lane in due course to deal with further leakage problems there, but the worst now seems to be over in Red Hill...thank goodness!