Sudbury residents frustrated after on-street parking near homes suspended due to twice-delayed roadworks

The disruption caused by twice-delayed roadworks in a Sudbury street has been described as ‘beyond the pale’, with residents forced to park up to a kilometre away from their homes.

Residents of Ballingdon Street have vented their anger after on-street parking was suspended for scheduled work last month that reportedly never took place.

Suffolk Highways attributed the two delays to wet weather and an unexpected operational difficulty, respectively, and is hopeful the work will be completed soon.

Signs and cones first appeared in late February, telling motorists not to park on the street on March 2 to allow for road markings to be repainted.

However, after moving their vehicles, residents claimed no work was carried out on the scheduled date and the signage was never removed.

A new set of A-boards then appeared last week, advising people to park elsewhere on March 28 – but it was again reported that no work occurred.

John McMillan, who lives in Ballingdon Street, said the frustration was exacerbated by the lack of alternative parking nearby, which meant many people had moved their cars ‘at great inconvenience’.

“I’m okay because we have an off-road parking space, but I know some of my neighbours are furious,” he said. “Once is a necessary nuisance, but twice is beyond the pale.

“The real difficulty is finding a parking space. There’s very little spare parking anywhere near Ballingdon Street. Anywhere near the town centre is a no-go.

“It’s very irritating, because people are having to go many hundreds of yards and sometimes into the countryside lanes.

“One resident has summed up the feeling – ‘there’s no way I’m moving my car a third time, you just can’t trust them at all’.”

In response, a spokesman for Suffolk Highways said: “While every effort has been made to carry out lining works at Ballingdon Street, in Sudbury, this has not yet been possible.

“Unfortunately, wet weather delayed our attempt in February and, although we had hoped to undertake the lining over the past few days, this was not possible due to an unforeseen operational issue.

“We are grateful to the residents who did follow the parking restrictions to enable the work.

“We have requested that this signage is removed from site as soon as possible, until the lining has been rescheduled, which we hope will be shortly.”