THE Mayor of Wellington has blasted people who verbally abused workmen carrying out repairs on the Tonedale Railway Bridge in town.

Drivers were left with a whopping 16-mile diversion route in order to bypass the closure of the bridge for around a month.

The work saw a 250-metre stretch of the B3187 at Milverton Road closed between the junctions of Wardleworth Way and Springfield Road, and motorists faced an official detour that took them out of Wellington and through Milverton, Norton Fitzwarren and Rumwell before re-entering the town.

And although there were a number of shorter unofficial routes that drivers could take, it did not stop some motorists from shouting abuse at the bridge workers for the disruption.

The Mayor, Cllr Janet Lloyd, told members of Wellington Town Council at their latest meeting that she was extremely disappointed to hear reports of workers being verbally abused.

“I was shocked and saddened to learn that the workers on the bridge had been verbally abused by some members of the Wellington community,” said Cllr Lloyd via Zoom video conferencing technology.

“We all know how the repairs affected our residents and businesses in the area but these workers were only trying to do their job.”

The Mayor said she had written on behalf of residents of the town to Network Rail’s communications manager Matthew Thompson and had apologised for this ‘unreasonable behaviour’.