A FREE bus has been put on for people to use while the A38 at Kempsey is closed for sewer works.

Worcestershire County Council has organised the bus which will serve the villages of Severn Stoke, Clifton, Kinnersley and Earls Croome.

Sewer works being carried out by Severn Trent closed off the road on Monday evening.

The road is expected to be closed for four days after engineers attempting to fix an issue near to the junction with Post Office Lane believe a sewer may have collapsed requiring urgent repairs.

The closure has affected the 332 and 33 bus services which are unable to operate between Brookend Lane in Kempsey and Upton-upon-Severn.

However, the limited free bus service will be running between Angel Place in Worcester and Upton-upon-Severn.

Matthew Jeynes from Severn Trent said: “Due to the depth of the sewer in this area and in order to complete this work safely we need to close the A38 in Kempsey in both directions until the repairs are finished.

“We’ll have teams of engineers working as quickly as possible to get everything back to normal but at the moment we’re expecting the work to take around four days.

”A fully signposted diversion will be in place in the area and motorists are asked to consider using other routes until the work is complete.

“We’re really sorry for the inconvenience this will cause but this emergency work needs to take place to make sure the road is safe for everyone to use. If we’re able to complete the work quicker than expected then we will of course look to reopen the road as soon as possible.”

Temporary notices including the timetable will be placed at bus stops.