A road closure will be enforced on the A387 between Polperro and West Looe starting on November 4.

The closure is planned to be in place until December 20 as the next phase of work to repair the retaining wall on Polperro Road begins after a landslip in March blocked the road between Polperro and Looe between the junction with Quay Road, West Looe, and the entrance to the Millpool Car Park.

The work will be carried out Monday to Friday from 7.30am to 11pm, with some weekend working as required. Emergency access will be maintained between those times while the workforce is on site.

Overnight working was ruled out due to worries of noise reverberating around the residential area. The road will remain closed overnight and during the weekend due to site machinery being in place.

Work to repair a further retaining wall on North Road has already begun. Both projects will be carried out simultaneously with North Road closed to traffic for the same duration.

The current diversion for the North Road works via West Looe Hill will no longer be in place from November 4. When both sites are active the diversion for traffic from the West to Polperro and West Looe will be via the A38 to Dobwalls roundabout, then via East Taphouse and Pelynt, whilst traffic for East Looe and Hannafore will be diverted via Trerulefoot roundabout on the A387, then B3253 via Hessenford.

Signs will be placed at major junctions, the local authority says, prior to the road closure on the key routes to take non-through traffic away and keep traffic disruption to a minimum.

Access into the road to Millpool Cottages from Bridgend will be permitted, and ‘businesses open as usual’ signage will be in place at Bridgend. Access to the Millpool car park will also be restricted to vehicles from Polperro and Pelynt.

School and Callywith bus services will not be affected by the road closure with school bus given access during 7.30am - 8.30am, 3.15pm-3.45pm and 5.30pm - 6.00pm, but local bus services will be affected; only the 481 and 482 buses will be able the access the Millpool Car Park, where they will terminate.

Go Cornwall has advised that Services 10, 73 and 73A will terminate at West Looe and not serve stops towards Polperro, whilst Service 77 will serve Polperro, Pelynt to Liskeard in both directions but will not serve Looe.

Cornwall Council highway’s team at Cormac has advised the works need to be carried out as soon as possible as poor winter conditions may cause further damage to the wall. They said: “Please be assured every effort will be made to minimise disruption. We appreciate your patience and cooperation while the work takes place.”

Cllr Armand Toms said: “It has been a poor season for some businesses in the town and we will lose some from this down turn. We will be talking to officers within Cornwall Council to see what other help and grants are available to the town and businesses.”

Cllr Jim Candy said “There will never be a good time to do these works, but I am pleased that Cormac have delayed the start date until after the busy half term week and will be allowing school buses through.

“They will open the road under lights for the Lantern Parade on November 29 for the lantern parade and December 5, 12 and 19 for late night shopping and Sunday December 15 for the tinsel tractor run.

“I am working with officers to see if we can increase bus services from Looe to Pelynt and Polperro.

“In order to mitigate the effects of the closure, I asked if charges could be suspended in Millpool car park, which will only be accessible to vehicles from the east, from Polperro and Pelynt. This would have allowed residents to walk across the bridge to East Looe, either for work or services, or even get the buses towards Plymouth.

“Free parking would have given some incentive for visitors to drive around the diversion. However I was told: ‘the up coming road works in Looe and with the previous mitigations should only have a limited effect on the access to Millpool car park whilst they take place. Whilst there may be limited disruption on the Highway, the car park should be able to operate effectively and so we are confident that as the access remains to the large car park, motorists will continue to use the site to spend time in the Town centre in the run up to Christmas.’

“I was amazed and very frustrated by this response and the total misunderstanding of the gravity of the situation, with Looe effectively cut in half by this work which cannot be delayed”