DRIVERS trying to bypass a road closure notice have made life a misery for one Newton Abbot couple.

Jeanette and Bill Watson have had to endure countless motorists using the driveway of their Coach Road home to turn around while Western Power were carrying out work along the road.

In one incident, a vehicle even crashed into the wall outside their home, almost damaging a gas pipe, then drove off without leaving a note.

The couple, who have lived in the property for more than 30 years, were out the day the crash happened.

They now face a bill for rebuilding the wall.

Bill explained: ‘The road was closed for several weeks with signs either end saying road closed access only.

‘But this road is always used as a rat run so drivers were testing it out to see if it they could get through.

‘But there was a trench dug up across the road so by the time the cars got as far as our house, they realised they couldn’t get through so they’ve been using our driveway all the time to turn around.

‘We had been out for the day and came home to find a huge crack in our wall. Nobody had left a note to say who it was. Luckily the gas pipe which runs through the wall has not been damaged.’

He said he and his wife had become ‘fed up’ with so many drivers using their driveway to turn around having ignored the warning signs.

He said: ‘They seem to think they can just edge through.

‘We’ve had a fair bit of abuse over it but people just haven’t taken any notice of the signs and that’s what annoys us.

‘The signs are there for a reason. It happened almost every day the work was going on.’

He said Coach Road is regularly used as a rat run and if two large vehicle try to pass, it can completely block the road.

When they first lived in the house, the road was a quiet back lane but now it is constantly busy with traffic.