Overnight A49 closures between Shrewsbury and Church Stretton to last until September

Work on one of the county's busiest roads to the south of Shrewsbury started this week and will continue until September 17.

The road, that links the county town to south Shropshire and south Wales, is closed north and southbound for an 11 mile stretch between Bayston Hill and Church Stretton.

The closure, which runs from 8pm to 6am, is for contractors Kier, working on behalf of Highways England, to carry out repairs to the road surface, lay new studs, and paint new markings.

Diversions take motorists from the A49/A5 roundabout at Dobbies, near Bayston Hill, eastbound along the A5 towards Telford.

They then make their way onto the A458 towards Much Wenlock.

Local traffic is then signed towards Church Stretton along the B4371 where it rejoins the A49.

Through traffic continues along the A458 to Morville where cars, lorries and motorbikes turn right onto the B4386 to rejoin the A49 at Craven Arms.

Access to businesses and residential properties will be available at all times although people are being warned there may be a slight delay due to road machinery.

A spokesman for Kier said: "These dates are subject to change, dependent on weather conditions. However, people will be kept fully informed of any amendments to the works schedule."

Christine Fallows, who works for Morris Care, said: "I finish work at 8.15pm so it may be that I will get caught out going from All Stretton to Shrewsbury as it says the closures are from 8pm to 6am.

"It also means that I will not get home after a 12 hour shift until an hour later. When they close the slip roads on the motorways they do it from 10pm until 6am to cause least disruption. They don't seem to care how much chaos or disruption they cause on the A49."

She added that she understood that The Pound Inn, a 15th century country pub and restaurant at Leebotwood, had been put up for sale recently by former owners Neil and Sarah McCann.

Some motorist have questioned why the work is needed when a comprehensive resurfacing programme was undertaken in the area less than 12 months ago.

While the programme was carried out on the stretch of road close to Leebotwood, the village, which has a population of around 230, was missed out.

Mayor of Church Stretton Michael Braid said: "The roads must need doing or they wouldn't be doing them, but there seems to be no consistency in their approach."

Aside from resurfacing he said there had been lots other works on the stretch of A49 between through south Shropshire in the past year, including pipe work at Bayston Hill, but the works did not seem to be joined up or taking place in the same way.

"With the works at the lay by at Bayston Hill they didn't do any work at night, when that would seem an obvious time to do it," he said.

He said the quiet narrow back roads around the area were likely to be hit by "awful" diversions again.

"There are also road works currently being done on the All Stretton road which is really narrow," he said.

Recent work on the A49 has included a full closure of the road for 10 days around Onibury to replace the level crossing, which saw traffic diverted away from the main trunk road for the entire stretch between Ludlow and Shrewsbury at the start of July.