RESIDENTS of a street in Whitchurch were left with a dangerous driveway after roadwork outside their houses led to a hazardous street.

Recently, residents who live in cul-de-sacs in Winchester Street have had a new gas main fitted in the road, which meant that temporary traffic lights were set up in the streets.

However, for four weeks after the work was completed, one resident still had the lights 10m outside his home, leading to driving difficulties.

Phil Cooper, who lives in Winchester Road, said: “The situation was very dangerous. Because of the roadworks, it meant that traffic coming from the right couldn’t see you, which almost led to a crash several times.

“When I mentioned this to the people working on the site, they said that they couldn’t do anything about it, but when I contacted the CEO and spoke to management, it was only then that they were moved."

Another of the points that was raised was that there had been no warning that these would be put up.

Phil added: "We hadn't been told that this was going to happen, and we should have been consulted.

"There have been many near-accidents that have happened, with people pulling out of their drives and into oncoming traffic as the lane is blocked. These lights should have been taken down at night, as it is a very busy road.

"These traffic lights were up for four weeks longer than they should have been, and it has been dangerous, it leads onto the A34."

The lights were placed in the road at the end of April and only came down at the end of last week.

A spokesperson for SGN Gas, who carried out the work, said: "Our engineers were working in Winchester Street to upgrade our gas network from Monday 23 April. We finished this project on Wednesday 30 May and then started the process of resurfacing the road. Once this was completed, we removed the temporary traffic lights on Friday 1 June.

"For everyone’s safety around our work area, we installed temporary two-way traffic lights on Winchester Street which were in place for the duration of our project, including while the new road surface was setting.

"All our work is agreed with the local authorities in advance, including the positioning of our traffic lights. Notice signs were in place for road users before the traffic lights were installed."