WATER company Severn Trent says the main road through Whitecroft will re-open next month – despite hinting work would be complete six weeks ago.

The major pipe replacement work has blocked off access between Forest Road, Whitecroft and Parkend for almost a year – with businesses and residents complaining that not enough is being done to get things back to normal.

Kit Spackman lives alongside Bream Road, in Lydney, and said: "I'm only too aware that the increased traffic levels that we've had to put up with since the Whitecroft work started has not diminished at all and the road closure signs are still in place at the end of Forest Road, in Lydney.

"The road is still closed, and although there's a veritable mountain of equipment in place, there doesn't seem to be too much going on."

Severn Trent says some of the hold-up has been due to extreme weather making working conditions very difficult and the project being more complicated than originally thought.

A spokesperson for Severn Trent said: "We've now laid the new water pipes in the Whitecroft area and all that is left to do is connect all of the properties to the new pipes. As soon as we have done this, we should be in a position to immediately re-open the road. To do this, we will need a specialist drilling team and we are hoping that they can come in and finish off the work by the middle of July.

"We'd like to say how sorry we are that this work is taking longer than we originally expected. In the mean time we're working closely together with the community to make sure we minimise any disruption, this included when we stopped work for a charity event taking place at the Miners Arms recently."