A MULTI-million pound re-surfacing project has been brought to a halt after faulty materials left cars, buildings and pedestrians coated in dust.

Small chippings used to cover sections of Barbourne Road and The Tything, Bath Road and a small section of Deansway, sent up extensive dust clouds as they were crushed by cars.

Work had also begun on a test section of London Road on Tuesday night but was postponed after it encountered the same problem.

Ringway has agreed to foot the bill of any additional work which needs to be carried out and a meeting was due to take place yesterday with Worcester-shire County Council’s engineers to agree the next step.

The resurfacing is part of a project to improve more than 100 miles of road but has instead caused a headache for businesses and homeowners in Worcester.

Shops claim they have seen a drop in custom after the heavy clouds affected people’s eyes and throats.

Jon Fraser, county council’s highways manager, said: “Until traffic travelled on the new surfaces it was not possible to have known of the problem which has been caused by small chippings used during the process being crushed by vehicles.

“The process has been carried out successfully in many other parts of the county earlier this year, including on high-speed dual carriageways. Finally, and most importantly, we’d like to apologise to anyone if it caused any inconvenience.

“Thankfully, this problem is very rarely experienced and everything possible will be done to ensure it does not occur in the future.”

Following phone calls from the public, teams worked overnight to sweep chippings and clean parked cars with high pressure jet washers as well as windows and businesses.

Letters were also sent out yesterday to people living near the roadworks offering to clean windows and cars parked on private driveways.

Pete Bailey, of Man and Van Worcester, was making deliveries to the Furniture Emporium on Tuesday when he saw The Tything veiled in dust.

“You could taste it as you were walking down the road, it was going in people’s eyes and covering the shops’ windows,” he said.

“Everyone I spoke to was annoyed about it because they are trying to make a living.”