I've been in touch with Devon County Council and the utility company digging up part of Tipton Vale Road. They’ve decided to limit the closure to just one day and night if the work goes as planned. This should be a welcome relief for local businesses in the run up to Christmas who thought the road would be out of action for almost a fortnight.
Last week, I met with Emily from Knights Farm Shop in Fluxton following concerns about the impact of a road closure in Tipton St John on her business.
There is full access to the farm shop despite the road closure and I’ve asked the council and utility company for clearer road signs to help make this clear to customers of this wonderful local shop and other businesses in the area that these roadworks are far shorter than originally planned.
Please find below what Devon County Council told me last week:
• Plan A is to close the road at 9am on Monday 29th. The contractor is doubling their resource to undertake both digs at the same time. If everything goes according to plan, another 2 gangs will take over in the evening so the road could then be open for midnight/6am Tuesday 30th.
• Plan B will only come into effect If the contractor finds any difficulties during the dig on Monday. If so, they will have to close the road again on Tuesday 30th at 6pm to continue and reopen midnight/6am Wednesday.
• NB: This is dependent on quarry openings but the worst case would be a temporary reinstatement at this stage to get the road open
For more background on this, Devon Live has a write up here: https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/knights-farm-shop-under-threa…