Five roads will be closed in a village for work costing £175,000 to be carried out to improve the drinking water supply network.

Essex and Suffolk Water will be installing around one kilometre of new pipes in Stokesby from October to December.

The work will also include renewing existing pipework from the water main to the boundary of customers' homes.

Roads affected will be The Street, Mill Road, Ferry Lane, Hill House and Croft Hill, with around 970 metres of water main being replaced.

Daren Still, project manager for Essex and Suffolk Water said: 'The pipes we are replacing will help to insure there is a robust water supply network in the village. We shall be working in a number of different streets with a road closure being put in place on The Street and Mill Road once the replacement work starts.

'This upgrade work will help to improve water quality and reduce interruptions to supply for our customers. We will be using a trenchless technique, where possible, to ensure disruption is reduced to an absolute minimum,' he said.

A temporary road closure from the beginning of October will be necessary on The Street and Mill Road for through traffic during the works. This is needed due to the width of the roads where the work is being undertaken to protect the safety of engineers working on the pipe replacement. These road closures will also allow the works to progress quicker.

The diversion route for through traffic will by via Filby using the A1064, then taking the Stokesby road to Thrigby and on to Stokesby.

And villagers in the area are being asked to plan ahead to avoid this essential upgrade work.

Mr Still added the water company is writing to customers and including a map of the works.

The project is part of the water company's multimillion pound investment programme into the water infrastructure in the region. Essex and Suffolk Water will on average invest £45m on essential improvements each year from 2015 to 2020.

Updates on the progress of the works can be found on the website: www.eswater.co.uk