AGEING gas pipes underneath Old Town will be replaced by Wales & West Utilities later this month as part of a £30,000 five week project.

The utilities provider will be replacing more than 200m of old metal gas pipes with new plastic ones on Albert Street and Little London, and will require access to some residents’ homes.

The work, which will be carried out by contractor Morrison Utility Services, will start on May 31 and is anticipated to take five weeks to complete. Both Albert Street and Little London will be closed while engineers are carrying out the works, but there will be diversion route that will be clearly signposted.

Dave Jones, the project manager for the work said: “We know that working on roads like this one is not ideal, but it really is essential to support the area in the future.

"We’ll have a team of gas engineers on site throughout the project to make sure that the work is completed as safely and quickly as possible while keeping disruption to a minimum."

All local businesses will be open as usual while engineers are on site and they have committed to accommodating trade deliveries.

Some businesses were left scratching their heads by the leaflets posted through their doors on Monday morning, as it stated that the work was essential to support homes and businesses in Wells in Somerset.

Mick Gallavin, Wales & West Utilities programme controller for Swindon said: “Before we started work, we sent a newsletter to homes and businesses in the area but due to an administrative oversight, there was a mistake in this newsletter. It has been corrected and resent."

The work in Swindon is part of a multi-million pound, 30-year gas pipe investment programme which began in 2002.