‘Life-threatening’: Planned three-month road closure sparks outrage

Serious concerns have been raised about a planned three-month road closure being potentially “life-threatening”.Councillors, residents and businesses alike were shocked to hear about proposals to subject Grimston Road in South Wootton – a key road into Lynn – to a series of closures between September and December.This is due to a roundabout being built as part of work on the controversial 574-home Knights Hill development, which was approved last year.

An Norfolk County Council Q&A response seen by the Lynn News show that the road would be subjected to full closures from October 21-November 8, and again from December 9-13.This has led to major worries from councillors who say they were not consulted about the works – and only found out after the Lynx Bus service posted about them on social media.Simon Ring, who represents The Woottons ward on West Norfolk Council and is also the authority’s deputy leader, said emergency services having to travel around a diversion route is a “scary” thought.

“The delay that is going to cause emergency vehicles could be life threatening,” he said. “People will have no business access for three months. How are they going to get to to school – how are they going to get to work?“Somebody has not thought about the impact on King’s Lynn businesses.” Cllr Ring added: “To decide that they are going to close the main HGV route into King’s Lynn for up to three months without consulting anyone is ridiculous.“It is a mess, and it has to be stopped and thought through properly – and we are hoping that Norfolk County Council will do that.”The contractors for the roundabout work is Tarmac. The county council is believed to be in the midst of discussions with them about the programme. The Q&A sheet shows the county council saying that Grimston Road has to be closed because the “existing road construction does not have sufficient depth to achieve the road surface levels without completely digging out the existing carriageway”.Responding to another question, the authority said: “Emergency services will need to follow diversions. The change in surface level would be too great to allow vehicles to pass through the works safely.”There are also concerns about the volume of traffic that will head through Castle Rising throughout the closures, despite the official diversion route pointing people along Wooton Road, Gayton Road and Queen Elizabeth Way.Access for residents will remain in place. Cllr Rob Colwell, who represents the Gaywood area on the borough and county councils, was also unaware of the impending closures until seeing the Lynx Bus post.However, he said that as of Wednesday evening, the county council was reconsidering the plans after receiving numerous complaints.“I have expressed in the strongest terms that any day closure as far as I am concerned is unacceptable,” Cllr Colwell said.“They are aware of worries over HGV main routes, Gaywood traffic/pollution, Castle Rising impact, school and commuter traffic. “We must let the officers now work this out. I trust that they will listen to the concerns of the community.“I think they have heard those concerns loud and clear. I am expecting an update by the end of the week.”As well as the full closures, the eastbound side of Grimston Road is currently planned to be shut from September 5 until October 18.That same stretch would then be closed again from November 11-December 6. A county council spokesperson said: “We are aware of the concerns about the proposals for the closure of Grimston Road in King’s Lynn related to the new housing development near Knights Hill.“We are looking into these with our contractor and we will issue any relevant updates to the scheduled works in the coming days.”The county council Q&A sheet adds: “It is appreciated that there will be an impact on the local traffic network. Unfortunately, it is not possible to carry out the works without closing the road for these periods of time.“The timeline has been reduced as far as possible. Works have commenced on the adjacent land, without closing the road during the summer period, and the closure periods have been kept as short as possible.Working hours are restricted, so evening working is not permitted. Traffic will be routed through the newly constructed section as soon as possible, to reduce the number of people affected by the diversion.”