A DECISION to allow workmen to dig up a freshly-laid road in a busy town centre has been branded “ludicrous”.

Worcestershire County Council spent £400,000 on a long-awaited facelift of Upton-upon-Severn, re-surfacing roads and pavements in High Street, Lower High Street and Old Street.

The project, which has been praised by traders and local residents, was only finished three weeks ago, so people were taken aback when workmen from National Grid arrived and started digging up Old Street on Wednesday.

One resident, who asked not to be named, said she could not believe her eyes.

“My blood started to boil when I saw what was going on,” she said. “The town has put up with disruption for the last 16 weeks while the council put down these beautiful new roads and paths and now we have this.”

She said she could not understand why the work was not co-ordinated to take place during the previous project.

Town councillor Rosemary Webb has been alerted to the issue and will be speaking to highways chiefs to find out what has gone on.

“The tarmac has hardly set and yet it is already being dug up again for a big hole,” she said. “It just strikes me as utterly ludicrous.”

Bob Lloyd, street works manager at Worcestershire County Council, said: “The work currently in progress by National Grid Gas in Old Street is for “new customer connections” for which we received a street works notice on March 22.”

He said the work is expected to last for about 10 days.

National Grid was unavailable to comment.