AN end has been promised by Tuesday evening (February 3) to town centre traffic chaos caused by emergency sewer repairs in Wellington .

Or, if Wessex Water engineers are unable to finish that quickly – the firm is promising the road will be reopened on Wednesday morning instead.

The work in North Street has been ongoing since January 21 after leaking sewerage flooded the basement of a house, forcing the family to be evacuated from the property.

It left all traffic heading into and out of the north of the town to use Longforth Road, where motorists complained traffic lights were not tweaked to allow a larger number of vehicles to exit.

The result was at times queues of traffic as far back as the Relyon factory, in Brendon Road.

The north side of the town was cut off by road on Saturday evening when a minor collision blocked Longforth Road, forcing drivers to use the Burchills Hill route through Rockwell Green.

However, the often single-lane road quickly became blocked with vehicles unable to pass each other.

Neighbourhood police Sgt Jon O’Connor reassured town councillors on Monday that in the event of an emergency situation in the north of Wellington on Saturday night, then fire engines or ambulances would have been able to force their way through the cones used to close North Street.

At the same time, resurfacing work on the A38 Chelston roundabout on Monday night saw drivers trying to use Ham and Poole as a diversion route, or Gerbestone Lane to travel via Ford Street.

The narrow lanes through Ham and Poole quickly became blocked with the volume of traffic, while in Gerbestone Lane drivers ran into large potholes, described as ‘craters’ which ripped tyres and damaged wheels.