Major traffic changes aimed at cutting the dominance of cars around Great Yarmouth's renovation-ready St George's Chapel come into force on Thursday. Highways engineers say they are doing all they can to cut confusion around the route with marshals and temporary road markings helping to signal the changes.

Major traffic changes aimed at cutting the dominance of cars around Great Yarmouth's renovation-ready St George's Chapel come into force on Thursday.

Highways engineers say they are doing all they can to cut confusion around the route with marshals and temporary road markings helping to signal the changes.

The scheme which reverses the one-way system around King Street and Deneside to create more paving around the former St George's theatre and Christchurch has been on-going for just over a month.

Project manager David Wardale at Norfolk County Council said that although the changes were significant for Yarmouth he did not expect any major problems.

Most of the modifications were self explanatory and where there could be some difficulties marshals will be on hand to guide motorists, he added.

“It will be a concentrated effort,” he said. “I think people will get used to it. It will just be that initial time they come to it. After that people will get used to it.

“For the area it is quite a big change but it is not an over-complicated change. It requires a co-ordinated response, there are some road markings we will have to remove and some new ones we will need to put in.

“The whole scheme makes a clearer statement about where the cars goes and create a heavy pedestrianised area around the Chapel and Christchurch with a knock-on benefit at Regent Road where cars have been giving way to buses. It will be helpful to have everything operating in the same direction.

“The idea is to make sure there are some personnel on each of the approaches on Thursday and Friday to ensure that it goes smoothly.

“It will be a case of having to follow the direction. Coming from Nottingham Way and turning into King Street will be a key area because you will no longer be able to turn left into King Street and will have to go down Deneside. Road markings there will improve that junction. It will all be fairly self-explanatory with possibly some temporary road markings to give motorists a chance to get used to it.”

Concerns have been raised about the effect on trade in King Street with customers reportedly put off by the roadworks, although the long term aim is to create an improved environment for shoppers.