Worcester Roadworks This Week: Sherriff Street and M5 J7

Sherriff Street is the city closure to plan round this week. It has been shut since Monday 5 October between Tolladine Road and Newtown Road for Severn Trent, for an anticipated 10 days, which runs to about 14 October. Traffic is sent round Tolladine Road, Woodgreen Drive and Newtown Road.

Woodgreen Drive then shuts for one night, 19:00 to 06:00, at some point up to 16 October, from the Hastings Drive roundabout to the Plantation Drive roundabout, both roundabouts included, for resurfacing and civil works by the county council. The signed diversion runs via Berkeley Way, Parsonage Way, Trotshill Way, Grange Way and Woodgreen Drive to Nunnery Way. Cavendish Street is shut round the clock for four days from 6 October for a National Grid connection.

On the motorway, National Highways closes the M5 northbound exit slip at junction 7, Worcester South, on the nights of Thursday 8 and Friday 9 October, 21:00 to 06:00, and the northbound exit at junction 6, Worcester North, on the night of Saturday 10 October.

All of the city orders above have been made, not proposed. The council does not say which night or day inside a window it will use, so check before you set off. (Worcestershire County Council notice of 1 October 2026)

The one-day closures of the A38 Bath Road and Wylds Lane on 4 October are over, as is GWR’s 4 October track maintenance at Shrub Hill. No Worcester notice has been published since 1 October; the county’s next weekly batch normally appears in the Worcester News on Thursday.

Live in Worcester this fortnight

Every row in that table is a made order. These are proposed for the second week, not yet made, so treat them as intentions:

• St Dunstans Crescent, The Hill Avenue to Battenhall Road: 5 days round the clock from 12 October, sewer works by Severn Trent.
• Norton Road to St Peters Drive link footpath: 8 days between 12 and 21 October, footpath reconstruction.
• B4636 Newtown Road, Sherriff Street to Midland Road: 1 night, 22:00 to 06:00, from 17 October, for a Network Rail bridge inspection. Traffic is signed via Shrub Hill Road, Tolladine Road and Woodgreen Drive.
• Mealcheapen Street, St Swithins Street to Queen Street: 3 days from 20 October, for a Severn Trent water connection. It is pedestrianised, and a walkway will be kept open.

Newport Street remains the longest closure in the city by a wide margin, and nothing in the notices of 30 September or 1 October changes it. It has been shut since 19 August between All Saints Road and North Parade under an order made for an anticipated 549 days, which runs to February 2028 at full length. The 1970 one-way order on the street is suspended for the duration so residents and businesses can get in and out. There is no emergency services exemption, so the signed diversion via All Saints Road, Bridge Street and North Parade has to be followed.

Just outside the city

• A44 Bromyard Road at Crown East, about three miles west: a temporary 30mph limit from a point 140 metres east of the Crown East junction up to and including the A4440 roundabout, for an anticipated 117 days from 5 October, for the Redrow Homes development. This order is made.
• Callow End, Pixham: 160 metres closed for 3 days from 5 October for Openreach ducting, under a proposed order in the notice of 10 September. It is a dead end.
• Hallow, Broadheath Lane and Hallow Lane: last week’s page carried a 29-day Severn Trent water main closure from 28 September. We could not find that order in any county notice on the Public Notice Portal on 6 October, so we cannot confirm its dates; check one.network before using the road.
• Kempsey, Post Office Lane, Roman Road to Oakfield Drive: 1 day from 13 October for an Openreach pole replacement, and Wadborough Road, 1 day from 15 October. Both are proposed orders.
• Powick, Sparrowhall Lane, Bowling Green Road to The Vineyard: 2 days from 20 October for Openreach pole work, signed via Colletts Green Road, The Drive and Old Malvern Road. Proposed.

Later in October

These are further out, and all are proposed orders.

• Ripon Road and both ends of Canterbury Road, off Newtown Road: 31 days round the clock from 24 October, for a replacement gas main by Cadent. Only one Canterbury Road junction will be shut at a time, and the Ripon Road one-way order is suspended so residents can get in and out.
• Sinton Green, Hallow, Sinton Green to Walton Lane: 5 days from 26 October, for Openreach.
• Woodbury Lane, 200 metres from Wadborough Road: 1 day from 28 October, for Openreach.

Last week’s page also listed a B4424 Upton Road closure at Callow End from 26 October. We could not find it in any county notice on 6 October, so it has been taken off until a notice confirms it.

Parking changes and consultations

• Georgina Avenue and Pope Iron Road with Waterworks Road: new no-waiting-at-any-time lines, made on 17 September, come into force on 8 October.
• Victoria Avenue: the county proposes a disabled persons’ parking space on the east side, 118 metres from the Albert Road junction. Objections by 15 October 2026.
• Wylds Lane: a proposed disabled persons’ parking space on the north side, 13.2 metres east of Compton Road. Objections by 29 October 2026.

Objections go to roadtrafficregs@worcestershire.gov.uk, or in writing to County Hall, Spetchley Road, Worcester WR5 2NP.

The motorways: junction 7 northbound exit shuts two nights running

National Highways’ rolling closure report now covers Monday 5 to Sunday 11 October 2026. Reading it junction by junction around the city:

• Junction 7, Worcester South. The northbound exit slip closes on the nights of Thursday 8 and Friday 9 October, 21:00 to 06:00, for maintenance between junctions 7 and 9. National Highways signs the diversion via its own network.
• Junction 6, Worcester North. The northbound exit slip closes on the night of Saturday 10 October, 21:00 to 06:00, for maintenance.
• The M50. The westbound carriageway from M5 junction 8 to M50 junction 2 closes on the night of Thursday 8 October, and the eastbound entry slip at junction 2 on the night of Wednesday 7 October, both 21:00 to 06:00, for maintenance.
• North of the city. There are overnight carriageway closures between junctions 1 and 3, in one direction or the other, on most nights of the week. That is the Birmingham end of the M5, not Worcester, but it catches the late drive home.
• South, towards Gloucester. The southbound exit slip at junction 12 closes on the night of Wednesday 7 October. At junction 11a the northbound exit slip closes on the night of Friday 9 October, then again from 23:59 on Sunday 11 October to 06:00 on 24 October for a footbridge demolition, with A417 traffic sent via junction 11.
• The A46 in Worcestershire. Nothing. The A46 closures in the report are at Widmerpool and Binley, nowhere near the county.

The county council’s public register of emergency closures, the unplanned ones caused by voids, landslips and collapsing buildings, has none in Worcester when checked on 6 October. It lists three across the county: Sutton Road in Kidderminster (a void in the carriageway, closed since 15 July), the B4204 at Rochford (since 6 February) and The Strand in Bromsgrove (a collapsing building, since 25 January).

How to check what is shut today

• one.network for Worcestershire is the map Worcestershire County Council itself points residents to. It runs on Department for Transport permit data, so it shows every permitted set of works, who is doing it and the dates. You can register for email alerts on a zone you choose.
• National Highways road closure report covers full closures on the M5, M50, M42 and A46, seven days ahead. Filter by road number, or download the spreadsheet the page links, which has a sheet per day. This is the one to check before a night drive.
• The council’s emergency road closure list is the one most people miss. It is a plain page of the unplanned closures currently in force across the county, with the date and time each one went on, and it is where a sudden void or landslip shows up before anything else.
• The statutory notices are the primary record, and they are the source of the dates above. The council places them weekly in the Worcester News and they are republished on the Public Notice Portal. Search a Worcester postcode and read the traffic and roads notices: each one gives the exact extent, the reason, the signed diversion and whether the order has been made or is only proposed.
• Report a pothole to Worcestershire County Council if the problem is the road surface. The Highways and Transport Control Centre is on 01905 845676, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

One caveat the council flags: the county’s own map does not show temporary traffic lights. Those are the responsibility of whoever is doing the work, whether that is Severn Trent Water, Cadent Gas or the council’s own contractor, and the number to ring is on the board at the site.

Who is responsible for which road

This catches people out constantly, so it is worth stating plainly.

So the council with “Worcester” in its name does not fix the roads. The county council does, across a network of 4,101 km (2,548 miles) of highway, including 575 km of A roads, 55,068 street lighting columns and 1,462 structures such as bridges and retaining walls. Its maintenance contractor on the ground is Ringway Worcestershire.

That split was due to end on 1 April 2028, when Worcester City Council was to merge with Malvern Hills and Wychavon into a single South Worcestershire unitary authority. The government paused that plan on 7 September 2026 pending a review (our report), so for now the county stays the highway authority with no end date.

What the county actually repairs

Worcestershire filled an estimated 16,022 potholes in 2024/25, up from 15,557 the year before and the highest of the last five years. Its published plan for 2025/26 is to fix around 30,000 defects, of which roughly 16,000 are potholes, surface dress 200 km of carriageway, resurface 80 km and reconstruct 70 km of footway.

Where it can, the council cuts out and patches rather than filling: it says over 75% of identified potholes are repaired to that standard rather than being given a temporary fix. Capital spending on highway maintenance was projected at £52.6m for 2025/26 against a Department for Transport allocation of £29.6m, with the balance funded locally.

The routes that carry Worcester

Worcester is unusual among cities its size in having two motorway junctions of its own. Junction 6 is signed Worcester North and feeds the A449 and A4538; junction 7 is Worcester South and feeds the A44 and the A4440 Southern Link Road. Between them they mean most of the city is within about ten minutes of the M5, which is a large part of why the Shrub Hill and Worcestershire Parkway area has been a focus for development.

The constraint is the river. The Severn runs north to south through the middle of the city, and everything crossing between the centre and St John’s or the racecourse side has to use one of a small number of bridges. Worcester Bridge in the centre carries the A44, and the A4440 crosses at Carrington Bridge to the south. When one is disrupted, the other absorbs it, which is why a set of works on either shows up as delay across the whole city.

Travelling without the car

• The free bus travel offer for under-16s has ended. It ran across Worcestershire until 31 August 2026, funded by the Department for Transport under the Great British Summer Savings programme. The county council’s local bus information page no longer carries it, and no replacement scheme has been published in its place.
• Worcestershire on Demand, the county’s app-booked minibus service, now runs across most rural parts of the county from 07:00 to 19:00 Monday to Saturday, excluding bank holidays. It costs £2.50 for the first rider and £1.25 per additional passenger. Concessionary passes and Veterans Cards are accepted after 09:30 Monday to Friday and all day Saturday, and under-5s travel free.
• The train is the fastest way to Birmingham, at 42 to 45 minutes from Foregate Street, and to London at about two hours. Foregate Street has no car park at all, so driving to the train means Shrub Hill (93 spaces) or Worcestershire Parkway (483). Our Worcester trains to London page has the times and the season ticket prices.

The October rail dates, from GWR’s list:

• Weekends of 10 to 11 and 17 to 18 October: Cheltenham area track renewal. CrossCountry runs replacement road transport between Gloucester and Worcestershire Parkway or Birmingham New Street; GWR’s own trains still run south of Gloucester.
• Monday 26 to Friday 30 October: track renewals between Worcester Foregate Street and Hereford, with replacement road transport from Shrub Hill to Great Malvern or Hereford. GWR still runs London Paddington to Shrub Hill, some trains extending to Foregate Street.

There is no permanent park and ride in Worcester. The service the county council publicises runs from County Hall for the Victorian Christmas Fayre weekend, operated commercially by First Worcester, rather than year-round.

The A449 at British Camp, Malvern: shut until at least the end of January

This is outside the city, about eight miles south west, but it is the road Worcester drivers take for the Malverns and the M50.

The A449 Wells Road is closed between British Camp car park and Little Malvern after two landslips. The first affected a 30 metre stretch with long-term subsidence, and that repair finished in April 2026. A second slip happened several hundred metres away, towards British Camp, in February 2026, during the final stage of the work. That is why the road did not reopen.

The council reports on the second slip on a separate A449 British Camp page, and its September 2026 update has now been written up. The detailed ground investigation finished in early August, the site sits on a geological fault line, and the council is still waiting for the full factual report before it settles a design. In its words, “the current road closure will be extended until the end of January 2027”. It says it moved away from month-by-month extensions because local businesses could not plan round them, and that by January it expects to publish the proposed design, the estimated cost and an indicative programme for reopening. There is still no reopening date. The diversion on the council’s map runs from the A438 near Ledbury, along the A449 through Malvern towards Welland, then joins the A4208 back to the A438.

Frequently asked questions

What roads are closed in Worcester this week?

Sherriff Street has been closed since 5 October for an anticipated 10 days, and Cavendish Street for four days from 6 October. The B4638 Woodgreen Drive closes for one night, 19:00 to 06:00, at some point up to 16 October, and Kilbury Drive has two days of resurfacing before 9 October. Southfield Street and Middle Lane have two days between 7 and 20 October. Newport Street has been shut since 19 August for an anticipated 549 days.

Is Sherriff Street closed in Worcester?

Yes. The county council made an order closing Sherriff Street between Tolladine Road and Newtown Road for an anticipated 10 days from 5 October 2026 for Severn Trent utility work. The diversion is Tolladine Road, Woodgreen Drive and Newtown Road.

Is Woodgreen Drive closed in Worcester?

For one night. The county council has made an order to close the B4638 Woodgreen Drive from the Hastings Drive roundabout to the Plantation Drive roundabout, both roundabouts included, for one night between 5 and 16 October 2026, 19:00 to 06:00, for resurfacing and civil works. It has not published which night. The diversion runs via Berkeley Way, Parsonage Way, Trotshill Way, Grange Way and Woodgreen Drive to Nunnery Way.

Where can I see live roadworks in Worcester?

On one.network’s Worcestershire map, which the county council uses as its own public map, and on the council’s emergency road closure list for unplanned closures. For motorway closures, use the National Highways closure report.

Who do I report a pothole to in Worcester?

Worcestershire County Council, not the city council. Use its report a pothole form or ring the Highways and Transport Control Centre on 01905 845676.

Is the M5 closed near Worcester this week?

Only slip roads. National Highways’ report for 5 to 11 October 2026 closes the northbound exit slip at junction 7, Worcester South, on the nights of Thursday 8 and Friday 9 October, and the northbound exit slip at junction 6, Worcester North, on the night of Saturday 10 October, all 21:00 to 06:00. On the M50, the westbound carriageway from M5 junction 8 closes on the night of Thursday 8 October.

How long is Newport Street closed for?

The order was made for an anticipated 549 days from 19 August 2026, round the clock, for development works by Prestwood Estates Limited. That takes it to February 2028 if it runs its full anticipated length. The one-way order on Newport Street is suspended for the duration so residents and businesses can get in and out. Emergency services have no exemption, so the diversion via All Saints Road, Bridge Street and North Parade must be followed.

Which M5 junction is Worcester?

Both junction 6 and junction 7. Junction 6 is signed Worcester North, for the A449 and A4538; junction 7 is Worcester South, for the A44 and the A4440 Southern Link Road.

Does Worcester have a park and ride?

Not permanently. The county council’s publicised park and ride runs from County Hall for the Victorian Christmas Fayre weekend and is operated commercially by First Worcester.

How many potholes does Worcestershire fill?

An estimated 16,022 in 2024/25, and the council’s plan for 2025/26 is roughly 16,000 potholes within about 30,000 defects in total.

Sources

• Worcestershire County Council public notices under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, published on 1 October 2026 and 30 September 2026, in the Worcester News on 24 September 2026, 17 September 2026, 10 September 2026, 3 September 2026 and 27 August 2026, and in the Malvern Gazette on 10 September 2026 for Pixham, which between them carry every Worcester city order dated above, with its extent, reason, diversion and whether the order has been made or is only proposed. The county publishes several bundles under the same title each week, one per local paper, so the same order can appear in more than one. The notices of 19 August and 20 August are the source for Newport Street and the Laugherne Road consultation.
• National Highways seven-day closure report, the report covering 5 to 11 October 2026, for the M5, M50, M42 and A46 closures.
• Worcestershire County Council, current emergency road closures, read on 6 October 2026.
• Worcestershire County Council, roadworks and live updates for the live map and temporary traffic light responsibility, A449 Wells Road, Malvern and A449 British Camp for the landslip closure, its diversion and its update history, including the September 2026 extension to the end of January 2027.
• Great Western Railway, planned engineering work checked on 6 October 2026, for the October dates.
• Worcestershire County Council, Local Highway Maintenance Transparency Report for network length, pothole numbers, spending and the 2025/26 programme.
• Worcestershire County Council, local bus information for Worcestershire on Demand fares and hours, read on 14 September 2026.
• Worcestershire County Council, Worcester Woods Country Park for the M5 junction and A-road signing used in the diagram.

Roadworks information was checked on 6 October 2026 and changes constantly. Three caveats on that date. The one.network map the council points residents to needs an account and cannot be read from a script, so the closures listed here come from the council’s own statutory notices and its emergency closure register rather than from the map, and any works permitted since the notice of 1 October will not be in the tables above. The Hallow and B4424 Upton Road closures carried last week could not be traced to a notice and are not confirmed. And the council does not publish which nights or days inside a window it will use, so the Woodgreen Drive, Kilbury Drive and Southfield Street closures could fall on any night or day in the range given. Always check the live map before you travel.