TOWN leaders in Abingdon are worried 10 days of roadworks may leave older neighbours stranded.

Members of Abingdon’s planning, highways and consultations committee agreed to write a letter to the county council expressing concern about repairs to Drayton Road’s surface and kerbs.

Temporary traffic lights will be installed in the road on Monday which will reduce the road to one lane between Ock Street and Mill Road from 9.30am to 3.30pm until Friday next week.

The second stage of works will begin that evening and see the same stretch of the road closed from 8pm to 6am for six nights until Friday, August 7, but no work will be done over the weekend.

Motorists are being advised to take an eight-mile diversion while the road is shut, along the B4017, then on to the A4130 to Milton and on to the A34 to avoid the roadworks. The 41, 42 and 43 Thames Travel bus services will not be affected. However, the X1 and X2 services will go via Sutton Courtenay, Culham, and the A415 when the road is closed overnight.

However, Abingdon’s planning leader councillor Mike Badcock branded the plans “ill thought out” and said older residents getting the bus back from hospital in Oxford could be left having to walk from the town centre.

He said: “We are concerned that the plans seems to be ill thought out.

“There appears to be no way for the buses to get in and out. We suggest that the iron bridge is made two-way access in the evenings.

“It would mean if an older person was at the JR and came home it would appear they would have to get off in Ock Street and walk instead of getting dropped off in Saxton Road.”

Mr Badcock and the committee agreed on Monday to write to the county council, expressing their fears and urging that the road be made two-way during the night repairs.

Oxfordshire County Council spokeswoman Emily Reed said the work would be carried out as quickly as possible to minimise disruption.

She said: “Although the works will result in disruption, they are essential to resurface and strengthen the carriageway and should mean no major reconstruction will be required on this stretch for many years.”