WEEKS of road closures and temporary traffic lights face Wellington and Rockwell Green motorists as work by broadband companies gets into full swing.

County council highways officers have granted a string of applications by Gigaclear and Jurassic Fibre to close roads and divert vehicles or to install temporary traffic controls around the town.

Most of the closures follow on from each other but a number of them overlap and clash as the companies move through the area.

Gigaclear community engagement manager Kristian Jenkins said the road closures were required for the company’s build of a full fibre network for the area.

Mr Jenkins said: “Residents have previously had a ‘dig letter’, this will have been sent out before works started, and I will send the build updates out to any resident who has registered with us.

“Our contractor (Avonline) will also drop letters to residents the road closures will affect as well as having early warning signage in place.”

But Wellington town councilor John Thorne this week expressed frustration at a seeming lack of consideration given to the inconvenience which would be caused for residents.

Cllr Thorne said the issue would be raised at the town council’s monthly meeting on April 4.

He said: “We are mostly not even given any notice that this kind of work is going to happen when it is a one-off project, let alone when it involves a massive sweep across half the town.

“I fully appreciate how important ultrafast broadband is for people in this day and age. I put it on a par with having water and electricity supplies to be able to have a reasonable standard of living.

“The Government has targets for connecting everybody to fibre networks over the next few years and has been pumping billions of pounds into schemes.

“But my understanding is that BT has already installed a full fibre network in Wellington some years ago and I cannot see why we now need another network from Gigaclear and another from Jurassic Fibre.

“After all, we do not have lots of different telecoms companies stringing wires along telephone poles, or different train companies laying railway tracks.

“Gigaclear seems to have only notified the town council of its plans as an afterthought when it was part-way through the work and Jurassic Fibre said they would like to meet with me but have not responded to the dates I offered.

“The town council is going to have a much bigger say in these matters in the months following the elections that are coming up in May and so I think we need to urgently discuss this now.”

Gigaclear recently closed Ardwyn, Swains Lane and Barn Meads Road, and Foxdown Hill, and this week moved into Oaken Ground, Rockwell Green.

On Monday (March 28) the company will close the main road through the town at Hilly Head for two weeks until April 8.

Adding to the disruption will be three nights of temporary traffic lights in Mantle Street from April 4 -6 while rival broadband provider Jurassic Fibre carries out work.

Further Gigaclear work will sweep through Wellesley Park, Grange Close, Eight Acre Lane, Barn Meads Road and Swains Lane for a second time, Popes Lane, Brooklands Road, Rockwell Green, and Exeter Road.

The Gigaclear programme is not scheduled to finish until June 10.