A NEWLY resurfaced road that was completed weeks behind schedule is to be dug-up after complaints from wheelchair users.

Campaign group Disability Action in Richmondshire has criticised county council contractors for failing to build dropped kerbs at the Finkle Street end of Rosemary Lane, in Richmond.

Work to widen pavements in the street, resurface and narrow the carriageway and create a one-way system began in January and was due to take eight weeks.

However, the road only reopened in the last week of April.

The delay angered shop owners who claimed they had lost thousands of pounds because of the disturbance.

Linda Curran, development worker for the group said: "Dropped kerbs should have been one of their primary concerns when they were designing the alterations.

"We've had people ringing us up because they could see they weren't making provision for wheelchair users."

Wheelchair users and staff from 59 Newbiggin, a day centre for adults with learning difficulties, say they now face a long detour to get to the town centre.

Nathan Middlemiss, a user of 59 Newbiggin, said: "We need a dropped kerb for our friends in wheelchairs to be able to get straight into Finkle Street. The new pavement is too high."

The project is part of the county council's traffic management strategy for Richmond, which is meant to include improvements for road users, especially pedestrians, cyclists and people with restricted mobility.

A spokesman for the council said officers had met with group representatives and a number of issues had been identified.

He said: "We had hoped to have all these problems resolved by last week but the materials didn't arrive. We've since discussed the matter further and we've plans to introduce a number of measures to resolve the problems including a dropped kerb and appropriate surfacing at key points."

The council hopes to have the work finished within a fortnight.

Officers blamed the original delay on bad weather.