FURIOUS residents of a usually quiet street in Taunton have hit out at the council after roadworks took place near their home until near midnight.

Patching work has been taking place on Priory Avenue for the past week, but nearby neighbours have expressed their anger as the works have run on until gone 11pm on more than one occasion.

Matthew Lloyd, who lives in Winchester Street, said he was left shocked and sleepy last Wednesday morning following the late night disruption.

He added: "They were working until around 11.40pm, it was so loud and we had no warning or any signs or anything from the council to say that it would be taking place so late.

"It's really inconsiderate, and not well thought out at all.

"I don't know why they couldn't do the work during the day while everyone else is at work, I don't think it would have been that much of an inconvenience for drivers.

"It was so hot as well, and you couldn't open the windows because of the noise so it was quite late by the time I got to sleep."

Matthew thought that would be the last of it, but he said the late night work had been continuing in to this week, and that on Monday, it didn't stop until gone midnight.

Matthew's neighbour Bethany Hunter said her one-year-old daughter Isabella was kept up because of the noise.

She said: "It's really annoying as last Tuesday it was quite noisy and Isabella didn't get to sleep until about 3am, so she was pretty grumpy the next day.

"We understand the council has to carry out these works but we had no warning that they would be working so late.

"What also annoyed me is that the workmen were being quite loud and swearing a lot, you don't really want to hear that, especially that late."

Another resident said that works continued until nearly 1am across three nights.

A Somerset County Council spokesperson said: “We apologise for any disruption caused.

"In endeavouring to keep to the schedule of the patching work on Priory Avenue, being mindful of keeping the inconvenience to motorists to a minimum, work did unfortunately run later than planned.

"Our workers are always fully briefed to operate as considerately and professionally as possible in residential areas, and we have passed the comments onto our contractor.”