PLANS to open Hereford’s Rotherwas access road have been temporarily delayed following the intervention of the Highways Agency.

The authority confirmed that the £12 million road had failed to meet all the standards of a stage three safety audit on two occasions.

As a result it was not prepared to give permission for the road to be tied into the agency’s existing network system – which means it cannot be merged into the A49 Ross road near the Grafton Inn.

The 3km road from the Rotherwas estate to the A49 at Grafton is almost complete, with the white road markings already in place.

But Highways Agency spokeswoman Filippa St Aubin d’Ancey said there were various aspects of the road with which auditors were unhappy and until they had been remedied the road could not be “signed off”.

She declined to give details of the problems saying the road was the responsibility of Herefordshire Council and it was up to it to explain. But a statement from the council, which had hoped the road would be open and used by traffic to the industrial estate by now, was equally unforthcoming.

Acting head of highways and transportation Richard Ball agreed the road was substantially complete.

“To enable the access road to be opened to traffic, tie-in works on the A49, north and south of the new roundabout, need to be completed to enable a switchover of traffic from the temporary A49 carriageway on to the new trunk road carriageway,” he said.

“The council is working closely with the Highways Agency and its agents to agree an approach to complete these works and the temporary traffic management.” All major roads are subject to road safety inspections and it is understood the points raised by the auditors are not of a major nature and are largely related to the area around the A49 roundabout, but they will have to be resolved before the road can be given the go ahead to open.

Construction of the new road started last March after a 20-year wait by businesses on the Rotherwas Industrial Estate.

Work was slowed down by heavy rain last year followed by a long disruption while a solution was found on how to deal with an historical architectural find that became known as the Rotherwas Ribbon.