THERE'S rarely a good time to drive into Worcester, but motorists planning to visit the city this summer may want to delay their journey - until about September.

Major roadworks are due to disrupt one of the main roads into the city centre from June 27 for 10 weeks.

The work by Transco to replace gas pipes under London Road and Sidbury has to be done. Despite what some people think, contractors don't go to all the trouble of digging up roads just for the fun of it.

But what business owners and tourist chiefs are complaining about is the timing of the project, which is predicted to cause huge snarl-ups.

Summer holidaymakers heading to and from the south coast on the M5 are often tempted to break up their journey with a visit to the Faithful City.

And then there's July's Three Choirs Festival, which will attract thousands of music lovers to

the city

This year, they'll get a quarter of a mile from Junction Seven and then turn around and head straight back to the motorway, says one festival organiser.

We sympathise with these opinions, but as Transco says, there's always something going on in Worcester and people will always be inconvenienced - just imagine if the work was going on during the Christmas Fayre.

Drivers will simply have to grin and bear it. And perhaps spend that time sitting in their cars wondering why Worcester doesn't have better rail links.