CONTROVERSIAL work to lay cabling for the Javelin Park incinerator, which will see Stonehouse High Street excavated, began today.

Day one of the six-month procedure started near the junction with Gloucester Road and the Horsemarling Roundabout to the north of Stonehouse, just past the railway bridge, this morning.

Construction workers for Morgan Sindall, on behalf of Western Power Distribution, were met by protestors this morning as they began work to lay five miles of underground cable from Ryeford to Haresfield.

Work is set to progress along the B4008 towards Haresfield and the Javelin Park incinerator - traffic lights will be installed to manage congestion during peak times.

A second team from Morgan Sindall will begin working at the Horsetrough Roundabout from the weekend of October 23 – during half term – and then along Ebley Bypass, which will involve closing lanes.

Work on the High Street – the most sensitive area of the chosen cabling route – is forecast to begin in January and finish in March.

The route has left Stonehouse’s county councillor Lesley Williams (Labour) ‘furious’, who along with more than 50 traders, councillors and residents gathered in the High Street last month to oppose the plans.

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“I am absolutely furious that after many months of prevarication GCC have decided that the cable link from Javelin Park to the grid connection at Ryeford will go along the B4008 and therefore through Stonehouse High Street,” said Cllr Williams.

“Two routes were proposed when the county council was applying for planning permission for the incinerator, neither went through Stonehouse.

“Now we have no forum in which to object, Gloucestershire County Council have decided to wreck the High Street yet again.”

This comes just a year on since the last time Stonehouse High Street was excavated, with traders saying they suffered heavy financial losses as a result.

Earlier this year there were discussions between GCC and Stonehouse Town Council to send the cabling on an alternative route through Laburnum Walk.

However, these plans were glossed over after GCC confirmed the cost would be around £2.2 million.

County council leader Mark Hawthorne (Conservative, Quedgeley) said that this cost would have been “a cost we cannot bear”.

“We worked very hard to find an alternative route to Stonehouse High Street,” said Cllr Hawthorne.

“However, the extra cost for this alternative route would be £2.2 million, 10 percent of our road repair budget, and that is simply a cost we cannot bear.”

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A concerted number of challengers from environment campaigners and have fought the incinerator’s construction every step of the way since the £500 million contract was agreed between GCC and Urbasor Balfour Beatty in 2013.

In letters sent to Stonehouse residents and businesses in the past fortnight Morgan Sindall stated: “We want to work with the community to ease disruption as much as we can.”

Meanwhile, WPD previously told the SNJ that it would work to limit disruption where possible.

“We have been working closely with Gloucestershire County Council and Stonehouse Town Council throughout the development of this project,” said Neil James, WPD’s Gloucester distribution manager.

"We do appreciate the disruption that the works may cause and have been working with the councils to limit this disruption where possible.”