Drivers face A30 diversions

DRIVERS using the A30 between Hayle and Penzance will be forced to struggle through a 16-mile diversion next week, while a four-mile stretch of the road has works carried out.

Patching and surface preservation work is being done between St Erth and the Newtown roundabout, and the road will be closed between 9pm and 6am every night from Monday. Traffic will be sent nearly all the way to Helston.

Julie Matthews, of Penzance Taxis, said: “It will cause us a lot of problems. Just going on what we've already got booked, it will affect jobs on most days.

“We could be severely messed around. We get a lot of people who need taking out that way, particularly if we're picking up from the train station.”

She added: “We've got several jobs that come in regularly on contracts that involve picking people up and dropping them off past St Erth.

“This is the holiday season for us, and we're most definitely well into it.”

But a spokesman for the Highways Agency said the work cannot be done in cold weather, or during the summer holidays, so it is a case of fitting in the work when it can be done.

The work is intended to make the road last longer, but is not of an urgent nature.

The diversion will add an extra 12 miles to the journey, but the spokesman for the Highways Agency said: “One reason for this is to accommodate heavy goods vehicles, as we can't send them down country lanes.

“ Local people will know short cuts and different routes.”

Residents living on the affected route will be allowed through, and gatesmen at each end of the diversion will have lists of names and number plates to facilitate this. Buses will also be granted access.

The first week of the scheme, which began on Monday June 23, has already seen traffic lights in place along the route between 8pm and 6am.