Major work to repair a Lowestoft sewer will see part of a main road closed off to traffic for 12 weeks.

From Monday morning Anglian Water will be carrying out £300,000 of repairs on the Victorian sewer on London Road South by the junction of Cleveland Road.

The repair work in the Kirkley area is being carried out after part of London Road South subsided in July when the sewer beneath it collapsed leading to the road being sealed off to traffic.

At the time Anglian Water only made emergency repairs as it did not want to close off the road for a long period during the busy holiday period.

From next week a new manhole will be built and engineers will be digging down more than five metres to repair a broken pipe.

Anglian Water and the Kirkley Business Association are keen to stress shops along London Road South will be open for business and pedestrians will not be affected by the road closure.

Traffic using the one-way London Road South heading towards the town centre will diverted around the road closure down Carlton Road with vehicles coming back out onto Mill Road.

Buses will also stop at the corner of Carlton Road.

Antony Innes, of Anglian Water, said: 'We know there is never a good time to close a busy road like this, but we didn't want to affect trade and tourism during the busy summer months. We have now left this for as long as we can, and need to commence work to address the problem now. We want to do what we can to help the local businesses who have been very helpful and understanding.

'All the shops in this part of town will be open as usual. None of the footpaths are affected by the road closure and the car park off Clifton Road will also remain open.

'We will be putting signs out to make sure Kirkley's customers know they are open for business throughout. We know that this work will cause disruption, and we're sorry for that, but hopefully people will understand that we have to do this repair. The consequences of not acting now could be much worse.'

A spokesman for the Kirkley Business Association said: 'We will work together with Anglian Water to ensure that the adjustments necessitated by the road works will be seamless, causing minimum disruption to the public.'