LANCASTER businesses face more disruption after North West water discovered new problems with the local sewage network. Water bosses say they must work for four more days on Rosemary Lane near its junction with North Road.

The new work kicks off on Sunday July 11 and traffic diversions will be in place as they were when the same area was dug up last year. That caused traffic chaos in the city for several weeks.

The roadworks forced many shoppers out of Lancaster as the city's already congested streets struggled to cope. Shops complained of a severe reduction in trade as customers chose to spend their money in other towns.

Traders were invited to make compensation claims, but local businessmen say that they received less that it cost for accountants to work out the costs.

The owner of one local company told the Citizen "For this to be happening again, after sixteen weeks of chaos during the last disruptions, is bang out of order."

Mark Taylor of North West Water described the new work as "an unfortunate situation which can only be attributed to the complexity of the many services buried in Rosemary Lane."

The work, which will be carried out by Lancaster City Council, involves making new connections with four properties on Rosemary Lane.

Mark Taylor insists "Other ways of making the connection, which avoid closing the road, have been ruled out on the grounds of safety, difficulty and access for future maintenance."

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