Winchester transport chief, John Beveridge, has explained the disruption caused by roadworks in Winchester.

At a meeting of the city council, he said many of the recent major road improvement projects had been designed and implemented by the authority's engineering services team.

Although the 15-week programme of works at City Road and the railway station had to be extended to accommodate a variety of changes, they were carried out in the allocated time, he said.

Referring to the closure of Garnier Road, he said it had been imposed at short notice by the county council bridges team because of safety concerns, to allow a weak bridge to be replaced.

Planned works for Chesil Street had been delayed deliberately to avoid conflict with others, he added.

"Late evening, night-time and weekend working are both expensive and very disruptive for residents," he said.

When trying to improve the efficiency of an historic road network, heavily used by traffic, congestion was "inevitable," Mr Beveridge told councillors.

He was answering questions from Jacky Porter, who represents the most affected ward, St Barnabas.