Three-week A46 closure for HS2 'will disrupt town'

A three-week closure of a major road because of the ongoing HS2 works will be "very disruptive" for commuters and businesses, local residents say.

The A46 near Kenilworth was closed on Friday at 20:00 BST and will not re-open until 06:00 BST on 1 May, because a 14,500 tonne box structure needs to be installed as part of the rail line.

HS2 Ltd said the road was closed between the A45 Festival roundabout and A452 Thickthorn roundabout, with a signed diversion route in place.

However, business owners in the town said they were worried about the impact of the closure on their customers and footfall.

"Half-term is normally a great time... It's definitely quieter than it would normally be at this time," said Ashley Davis, owner of Morning Sunshine Coffee in The Square.

Mr Davis said the closure was affecting visitors and spoke of how it had resulted in staff members arriving 45 minutes late due to delays.

"A lot of it's just the stress of which way they are going to go, which way they are going to get to work and how long that closure is for really, the length of time it's going to take," he said.

"For a lot of the businesses, when we had the weekend closures recently, it was a huge loss in turnover and in footfall."

Charles Smith, who is retired and a regular at the cafe, said a lot of people in the town would be affected by "not being able to get in easily".

"It's very disruptive for the town because so many of the access roads into the town are affected and we're seeing it this morning, where there's traffic build up in places where there isn't normally that much heavy traffic," he told the BBC.

Sarah McCaffrey, manager at the Kenilworth Centre, said they had already seen "some change" in their room hire because of the works.

The charity-run centre, on Abbey End, delivers multiple family and community activities, include a youth club, pop-up cafe and playgroup.

"We won't know the full impact, you know we've only seen a few adjustments pre it closing, but we'll see how that continues over the next few weeks," she said.

Victoria, who runs Tree House Bookshop in the town, added most people were "quite worried" and the closure was a "big concern".

"We don't know yet the full impact as it's only just started, but people are very worried I think, both about the impact on commuters going to work, but also extra traffic through town," she said.

"I can't believe HGV drivers are going to take a 45-minute detour, rather than just come through the centre of Kenilworth."

Colin Lowther, from National Highways, said officers would be on standby so they could quickly attend and clear any problems that arise.

"We have free recovery on standby, the control room will be monitoring traffic," he explained.

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