WORKMEN were back digging up Newton Abbot’s Wolborough Street today just a month after laying a new road surface last month.

The freshly finished carriageway was ripped up as engineers moved in to fix a gas leak.

‘No Smoking’ signs were erected around the troublespot near the Pomeroy Road junction together with sets of traffic lights at either end of the disturbance.

Nigel Frude, Wales & West Utilities Gas Emergency Services Manager for Devon, said this afternoon: ‘We were alerted to reports of a smell of gas in Wolborough Street this morning and immediately sent an engineer to the scene.

‘On arrival we found a leak on a gas service pipe supplying a property on Wolborough Street - and we are currently working to repair it.’

He added: ‘In agreement with Devon County Council, and so that road users, pedestrians and our colleagues are kept safe while we work, traffic lights are in use along Wolborough Street.

‘This is a complex job, and we do not yet know how long our work will take, but we will be working as safely and as quickly as we can to make a full repair.

‘We appreciate that working on a road such as this is not ideal, but it is important that we fix the leak now in order to continue to provide a safe and reliable supply of gas to homes and businesses.’