THE drama over improvements to Tenbury town centre will rumble on into spring 2018.

Ken Pollock, who represents Tenbury on Worcestershire County Council, had said that the last bit of work would finally be completed early in the New Year.

The job had been put on hold so as not to cause disruption during the run up to Christmas.

But now it has been revealed that because the winter can be cold work on putting down tarmac will have to wait until Spring when temperatures rise.

“I had hoped to be able to sign off the Public Realm work, but there has been a glitch, said Ken Pollock.

“While the work on the pavements, kerbs and black tarmac is finished, there are outstanding issues.

I learnt that laying the red tarmac cannot take place in temperature conditions close to or below zero.

“In consequence, all such work has had to be postponed, probably until the Spring. I find this very disappointing, and wish we had all been told about the possibility much earlier.

“Personally, I would have stuck to the schedule, as we could not have used the mortar under the paving slabs in frosty weather likely in the New Year, and that would have meant postponing the whole job until the Spring. Proceeding as we did was the right choice. It would have been good to know of this possible problem in advance.”

But this is not the only problem.

“People will have noticed black bollards in place on Teme Street,” added Mr Pollock.

“This is not what was specified, but the stainless steel ones on order have not yet arrived. The other ones were used to help complete a safety audit.

“Other parts of the street furniture will be installed in the coming weeks, to complete the picture, at least until the proper red tarmac is laid in warmer weather.

“It is highly regrettable that this whole project has taken longer than desirable and thrown up so many small but irritating problems. I trust the rest of the Christmas period will pass off without problems, to allow a really successful festive trade.”

The saga of the improvements to Tenbury Town Centre have rumbled on for years.

As part of the planning agreement for the new supermarket it was agreed that Tesco wound fund part of the work.

However, the money would not be released until the supermarket chain had started work on the building on the former Auction Yard site which was completed this spring.