OFFICIALS are looking into the possibility of bringing an early end to a controversial road closure as concerns were raised over the "significant disruption" caused.

The Hollow Hill Lane/Market Lane road closure has been in place since August 2, and Slough Borough Council cabinet members discussed bringing the experimental road closure to an early end at its meeting on Monday.

A recommendation was made to cabinet by the neighbourhoods and community services scrutiny panel to reduce the 18-month time frame for the closure down to three to ease the travel chaos on residents and businesses.

But cabinet has decided to find out further information on if the road can be closed early, aiming to find out the minimum closure time required to obtain sufficiently robust traffic data.

The road would be closed at Chequers Bridge if the Western Rail Link to Heathrow (WRLtH) project gets the go ahead, so the council introduced the scheme at two-weeks notice to try and find travel solutions to the closure.

Councillor Fiza Matloob, commissioner for transport and highways, said: "Officers are going to write off to the transport commissioner and find out exactly what the minimum date he requires is so that we have some guidelines.

"What we do not want is a repeat of the Burnham Lane closure issue as that ended up going on for nine months - that is the last thing we want.

"If these projects get the go ahead the road will be closed whether we like it or not. It might not happen for a couple of years, but the most important thing is that residents are happy.

"They can send us their suggestions in terms of mitigation for that and what they want to see to minimise the impact on them."

Cllr Matloob said that traffic studies have already been conducted, both by Network Rail which is leading the WRLtH project, and by Bucks County Council.

It had been suggested that the closure ends on November 2, and cabinet will receive a further report at its meeting on October 17.