ESSENTIAL repairs to an old leat bridge under the highway will see the road between Meavy and Dousland closed for six weeks.

Starting on Monday (August 13), work will be undertaken to replace the old Plymouth leat bridge under the highway, meaning the road at Meavy Cross, just after the junction to Burrator Reservoir and Sheepstor village, will be completely closed on the Meavy side from Monday, August 13 to Friday, September 21.

Devon County Council’s bridges and structures team told Burrator Parish Council that the old bridge taking the ancient Plymouth Drake’s Leat underneath the road from Dousland to Meavy was coming to the end of its life and needed to be replaced.

The team told the parish council at a meeting that the work would also be used as an opportunity to try to control flood waters which run off the commons at times of heavy rain.

The council said Meavy village had suffered several instances of flooding in recent years and had repeatedly stated that it was unacceptable and had been in contact with the relevant authorities asking for preventative action to be taken.

A Devon County Council spokesman said: ‘The bridge over the Plymouth Leat has reached the end of its life and needs to be replaced.

‘Part of Burrator Road will be closed to enable a new reinforced-concrete slab deck to be installed on the structure.

‘A diversion will be in place via the B3212, Yelverton and Meavy Lane. Access to Burrator will be maintained from the B3212. A short stretch of the road will also be resurfaced to include the junction to Burrator.’

Burrator Parish Council wanted to stress that the work being done was outside of the control of the parish council.

A spokesperson for the parish council said: ‘County highways have told us they will endeavour to minimise disruption. A major, long term closure like this is always going to be inconvenient, but there is never a good time to close a main road.

‘If they had put the work back into the autumn, it would have meant six weeks of frustration for local school traffic and if they had put it back into winter then it could have taken eight weeks or more.’