To ask if there's a way to prevent a road closure?

[WelshMaenad]

We've received notice today that our road is to be closed for ten weeks.

Our street only has houses on one side, on the other is gardens. Last summer a back wall of one if those came down in the floods. Repair work to the wall started last October, then stopped, leaving us with inconvenient road narrowing and dangerous flimsy metal fencing in the road.

They now want to close the road to complete the repairs. This is going to cause untold problems with access/parking, especially as the road isn't wide enough to turn in easily, is on a hill, and hemmed in by a very narrow partly blind bridge which is impossible to reverse over. My dd is disabled and we need to be able to park near the house. My neighbour's daughter is seriously ill with cancer and might need an ambulance at any time.

Also complicating the issue is that the house right across from the wall site has a wall built around the pavement at front creating a yard so pedestrian access is via the road, meaning there may not be pedestrian access at all, never mind how these people will get in and out of their front gate.

How do we protest this closure-is there anything we can do? It's going to make life absolute hell.

If there's houses surely they need to ensure access for you and emergency vehicles?
I'd talk to the council they'd have authorised it

Were there contact details on the letter? Otherwise you need to find the appropriate bit of the council to find out what 'closure' means in practice. The road through our village was supposedly 'closed' for several weeks while they put in 'traffic calming' - but what this meant was closed to through traffic, residents were not prevented from accessing their properties, just had to drive slowly over rough surfaces/around obstacles.

They usually don't close roads completely. Residents usually still have access

The main road at the top of our lane was closed for 7 weeks for drainage works, but we (and visitors/delivery drivers/workmen/etc) could still use it for access to our houses

Is it a council department who are carrying out the works? If so, get in touch with them. As others have said, most road closures are 'except for access' unless there is some sort of critical safety issue (such as that part of the road is going to collapse...)

We've also had cases recently where a road is only closed for the core part of the day (9.30 - 4.30 say). Not perfect, but better than nothing.

Worth protesting anyway, but not just by yourself. Talk to your parish/town council who should already be aware of this and might be able to help.

You need to speak to your streetworks dept at the council, they will have had to apply for permission to close the road under the Traffic Management Act. They'll need to allow access to emergency vehicles in the event of them being needed but you can be prevented accessing the road outside your property if the works are deemed urgent enough to require a road closure.

What are the implications if they don't close it? What are the dangers if they don't do the work? Can the work be carried out without closing the road?