Fed-up residents say these photos show why are calling for action at a 'chaotic' bottleneck road in Harborough

Fed-up residents are calling for a bottleneck road in Market Harborough to be turned into a one-way street.

Frustrated people are warning that Clarence Street, off St Mary’s Road, is fast becoming a “disaster zone” after a string of road rage flare-ups.

And they say the growing traffic crisis was highlighted by the lorries of workers at new retirement development Tebbutt Lodge totally blocking the road on Wednesday afternoon (September 16).

The Rev Barry Osborne, 74, who lives on Clarence Street, said: “It was absolute chaos.

“None of us could move.

“It’s bad enough at the best of times.

“But traffic was blocked both ways, everything was brought to a complete halt.”

The retired Congregational Church minister added: “The workmen were putting down the final surface for the car park outside Tebbutt Lodge.

“They turned up with a whole load of aggregate lorries.

“But nobody at the developer Churchill, which is building this big retirement complex, thought to tell us.

“So residents drove home to a disaster zone.

“The road was totally blocked.

“They had nowhere to park to unload equipment from their vehicles because contractor’s wagons were still hurriedly unloading aggregate.”

Barry said the incident blew up as the repeatedly-congested road near the town’s railway station has become a “rat run”.

“Clarence Street obviously needs to be accessible for emergency service vehicles such as fire engines as well as for local residents.

“Almost all of us who live here have to park on the road because we don’t have driveways or garages,” said the veteran churchman, who’s lived there 12 years.

“This street is barely wide enough for one-way traffic, never mind two-way.

“We get road rage all the time.

“Just the other day someone here had to call the police when a fight broke out between two drivers.

“We don’t want to see trouble breaking out just feet from our homes.

“But if we get involved we put ourselves at risk.

“Too many promises made to us have been broken over the years.

“We have asked the county council time and again to turn Clarence Street into a one-way road to solve this nightmare but it’s like talking to the deaf.

“People here have had enough.

“We want Churchill to be much better at keeping us fully informed at how their work is going to impact on our street.

“And we want the county council to act now to tackle this problem and make us one-way.”

A spokesman for Hampshire-based Churchill Retirement Living spokesman said: “We sincerely apologise to anyone who was impacted by the temporary disruption to Clarence Street on Wednesday.

“This was caused by a late delivery which was unfortunately beyond our control.

“We have done our utmost to keep disruption on Clarence Street to a minimum during the construction of the Lodge, and we are pleased to confirm that with the development now almost finished, there will be no more large deliveries to cause disruption of this nature in future.

Leicestershire County Council has also been asked for a comment.