SOMERSET County Council highways authority came under fire from angry Dunster residents at a parish council meeting on Monday night over its decision to close a busy road in the village for five days and allow cars from 100 houses to be used for only 40 minutes a day.

Marsh Street, Dunster Marsh, will be closed by the county authority from the Station Road junction to the A39 from 8am from 5pm for five days from November 25 to allow Ware Construction contractors to prepare for service connections to a new house in the street.

Cars travelling to and from Marsh Street and adjoining Conigar View, Bremis Road and Riverside Gardens will only be allowed access for ten minutes at 10.15am, 20 minutes at 1pm and ten minutes at 3.45pm.

At a packed meeting on Monday, residents complained of poor communication with the highways authority and its refusal to consider making the one-way street temporarily two-way, or installing traffic lights.

Parish council chairman Doug Challoner said the council had been trying for weeks to persuade the highways authority to consider alternative ways of keeping the streets open, but these had been rejected.

Ware Construction’s operations manager, Richard Parsons, told the meeting that his company was building a new house for a private client and essential services needed to be brought to the site.

He said the work would be carried out within a week to minimise disruption but the county council was responsible for the way the operation was implemented.

“The road will be shut for eight hours a day but we will do the best we can to open it up three times a day,” he said.

“I think it’s important to reiterate that it is the county council who’s stipulating that the road must be shut for eight hours, not us, but we have to work within their guidelines.”

Read the full report in tomorrow’s Free Press.