I READ in today’s County Gazette (Heartbreaking toll of roadworks on family business, April 20) that the A358/Station Road roadworks will be continuing for another month, with “final surfacing of the A358” in the week commencing May 15. 

As the occupant of the house closest to their business I would state that, in direct consequence of the difficulties in getting to their shop, I spend less there in a week now than in a month before the “temporary” traffic and pedestrian arrangements.

I am appalled at the delay. 

The idea that this disruption to our lives is going to continue in the main workings for another four weeks minimum is intolerable. 

For seven months it has been barely tolerable in our house and garden during the daytime and, last Wednesday/Thursday, absolutely impossible to sleep, read or even listen to anything. 

Now it seems that this will be continuing into the summer.

READ MORE: Family firm struggling amid A358 roadworks 

There is no sign yet of works being undertaken to restore the cul-de-sac, eg to re-create the pavement or fill in properly the roadway dug up on October 31, or to install a replacement bus shelter with litter facilities. 

Is this going to commence after the headline works are completed? And what of the landscaping? No one with even the slightest knowledge of plants can expect anything other than opportunist weeds to grow in the mixture of subsoil and general debris that is being used to back-fill the devastation. 

Will this all have to be dug out by further contractors, and proper soil put in its place? 

I can see no prospect of the whole project being finished before August Bank Holiday weekend, but then, I suppose that will be okay with the WSR, as their highlight event is after that.

Currently, every farm trailer and unladen articulated lorry sets off a judder in our house and a crashing noise as it, presumably, goes up or down a ramp on the A358. 

Every heavy diesel vehicle (especially buses) now also has to re-accelerate at the roundabout, causing further vibration. 

We have already experienced cracking of the external render of our house, cracking of the plaster around an upstairs window and loss of plaster from ceiling fixings. 

This can only get worse with each passing heavy vehicle and, I fear, is going to continue, if not worsen once the A358 works are complete.

ADRIAN GIBB
Taunton