REDROW Homes has been forced to back down after chaos hit the streets of Lymm when Rushgreen Road was closed.

A stretch of the road was to be closed for eight weeks to allow a mini-roundabout to be built adjacent to the new Redrow Homes development.

Huge traffic tailbacks marked the opening of the diversions on Monday night, however, and Redrow has now agreed, with Warrington Borough Council, to impose an off-peak road closure between 9am and 4.30pm from Mondays to Saturdays, with temporary traffic lights regulating traffic at other times.

Richard Haimes, the owner of Heatley's Cycles in the affected area, who saw his custom fall by more than half when the road was closed, says the move is a sensible course of action: "This will mean there is by no means the same level of disruption, but we will still be affected."

"However, Christmas is when we sell most of our bikes. It has been a terrible year already, we lost £12,000 when the road was last closed in the spring, and this is killing us."

Ann Scales, who works at Rushgreen service station, said the news was a boost: "This is marvellous news, the best we have had all day and it will help the situation but it won't completely solve the problem."

Howard Claxton, traffic management and safety manager at Warrington Borough Council, said: "We are very pleased that Redrow has responded to a number of concerns both from the council and members of the public.

A spokesman for Redrow said a permanent diversion will be imposed for two to three days towards the end of the works.