Motorists in a Norfolk town have been forced to wait up to two hours to travel just two miles through the town centre after road works caused traffic mayhem and left businesses in fear of losing customers.
Work is being completed on Victoria Road, Diss, to repair damage to the footpath. The work, which started on Monday, July 2, has caused one lane of the road to be closed meaning traffic lights have been installed.
But after the workmen had finished for the day on Tuesday, July 3, the traffic lights were not removed causing large queues during rush hour.
A Norfolk County Council spokesman said: 'Unfortunately, it seems that traffic lights were not removed from the site by our contractor in peak hours. We are investigating this, and would apologise for any delays caused.'
The lane closure comes as work to repair another section of the footpath that started on Monday, April 4 finished.
Bilal Gonulsen, who owns Victoria Fish Bar, said the constant work was affecting his business.
'Even our neighbours are not able to walk to the shop with the work going on,' he said. 'We have already seen a drop in customers as no-one can park or turn into our car park at the back of the shop.
'We don't know what is going to happened.'
Residents have called for the work to be completed at night but Norfolk County Council says this is not possible.
The council spokesman added: 'As Victoria Road is a residential area, conducting the work overnight was not an option, so it was agreed to concentrate the activity during off-peak daytime hours.'
Not all motorists are against the road closure. Some understand that work needs to be completed.
Resident Paul Razey said: 'The pavement which is next to the road with drivers everywhere so why put workers at risk?
'Better safe than sorry, imagine if something happened to a worker. Everybody would ask why the road wasn't cordoned off to prevent it?'
Sarah Mackenzie said: 'I agree the works need to be done - but there have been roadworks and road closures in Diss and surrounding areas on and off since before Christmas.'
Work is expected to be completed by Friday, July 13.
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