Port Hill closed without warning

Local roads have been severely congested after the sudden and unannounced closure of the B158 at Port Hill yesterday evening.

The road was closed by UK Power Networks at 8pm yesterday evening (4th June) for emergency repair work that could reportedly take up to eight days.

The closure resulted in heavy congestion in surrounding roads this morning.

County Councillor Ben Crystall posted on social media this morning, saying: "As you may already be aware B158 Port Hill was closed as an emergency last night by UK Power Networks due to a faulty mains cable and was anticipated the road would need to remain closed until 11th June. I am pleased to report however following conversations with UK Power Networks this morning the closure will be removed within the next couple of hours. UK Power Networks fully appreciated the sensitivity of the location and have made every effort to complete works as quickly as possible, thankfully the severity of the fault was not as bad as initially thought"

Both bus services and refuse collection have been disrupted due to the absence of notice ahead of the closure.

Local roads including Nelson Street and Byde Street have been severely impacted, with traffic virtually gridlocked.

Cllr Crystall later commented: "Sadly the inconvenience to residents has been significant, including to those living on alternative routes including Byde St which has seen a huge increase in traffic. The reality is that under our streets are a spaghetti of cables and pipes, many supplying vital services to residents but many of significant age, and these will inevitably fail from time to time. Clearly this closure on Port Hill is an unplanned emergency and not repairing it would leave residents without power. The complexity and age of our infrastructure means that inevitably this kind of thing will happen from time to time and it is very difficult to guard against.

But it highlights the importance that privatised utilities ensure that they put in sufficient investment to protect against this kind of failure."

Update 13:30 5/6/25: The road has reopened.