Looe town council issues update on six week road closure

Locals and visitors to a town in Cornwall will no longer face weeks of delays ahead of the festive season, as a road closure will now end earlier than planned. In October, Cornwall Council announced the A387 Polperro Road in Looe would be closed from 7am on Monday, November 4, to 11:59pm on Friday, December 20, while wall stabilisation works along the road are carried out.

The council said the closure was needed on the A387 for soil nailing and piling works to take place, following a landslide on the road earlier this year. It added the road closure would be in place 24 hours a day, including at weekends, however, emergency access will be granted.

Following the announcement, residents in Looe expressed concern over the impact of the closure. One person previously said: "No thought gone into this for business or local people close it at night [and have] traffic lights in the day."

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Another wrote: "Ridiculous decision in my opinion. Yes the work needs to be done and has been needed for months, but... will negatively impact a lot of businesses in the the town."

However, Looe town council has now confirmed that Cornwall Highways will be lifting the road closure along Polperro Road earlier than initially planned. The road is set to reopen this afternoon (Friday, November 29), with traffic lights installed to keep traffic flowing while Cornwall Highways finish the work.

These lights will remain in place until mid-January, including during the Christmas shutdown. The town council said the project extension is required as traffic will impact working conditions.

It added that it hopes this amendment to the scheduled works will improve access for everyone during the town's lantern parade, the Christmas light switch-on, and other festive events in Looe.

So far, Cornwall Highways has said most anchors in the soil slip area and beneath the property sitting above the wall have been drilled, grouted, and strength-tested this week. Erosion control and stabilisation mesh installation has also been finished, and flexible mesh is being added to secure a loose section of the buttress wall to ensure it is secured.

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