Motorists are facing months of disruption on the Ashby by-pass next year when work finally starts on the new 605-home Money Hill housing estate.

The initial centres on a new roundabout on the A511 which create an access road for works traffic.

The first residents are not expected to move in for over two years, but work affecting traffic on the bypass is due to begin in February 2022 - and could last until October.

Ashby de la Zouch Town Council's planning committee was presented with the scheme at Monday night's meeting.

And it was made clear that long-term lane and road closures, with associated diversions, would be in place.

The work will be carried out between the Tesco roundabout on Nottingham Road, and the Smisby Road roundabout.

Bloor Homes and Taylor Wimpey have combined to build the new estate and the new roundabout will lead to a new access road so that work on the houses can begin.

Some work is planned along Nottingham Road as well with access to the building of 100 homes.

But the developers say that there are no plans to change the HGV restrictions into Ashby itself, either permanently or temporarily.

Residents in Nottingham Road and Wood Street will receive a written notification four to eight weeks ahead of the work taking place.

Representatives of Bloor Homes and Taylor Wimpey addressed councillors to warn them of the significant disruption that would be caused by the building of the new roundabout.

But while adding that most of the construction work would eventually be contained on site, it is impossible to do that without first creating the access road.

During this time, it is expected that there will be no northbound access from Discovery Way which can be used to gain access to and from Tesco - and is also designed for HGV traffic to and from the United Biscuits depot.

Drivers wishing to turn left out of Discovery Way will have turn right, then use the Nottingham Road roundabout to come back onto the A511 towards Smisby and Boundary.

Ashby councillors have made their concerns known about the level of traffic connected with the Money Hill development in previous meetings.

In May, committee members said the work on Nottingham Road was 'an accident waiting to happen', you can read that article HERE.

In the previous September, concerns had already been raised about the amount of traffic associated with the building work, you can read that article HERE.

Last February, councillors were worried that the development's design had moved away from its original plan, you can read that article HERE.