SYMONDS Yat traders, fed up with traffic lights and disinfectant mats on the road bringing tourists to the area, were expecting that the route would be returned to normal this week.

Herefordshire Council said that ADAS, who had carried out a risk assessment of the area, had agreed that the road should be reinstated.

Members of Symonds Yat East Riverside Community Association had written to the local authority complaining about the state of the road.

They said that the C road joining the B4229 across Huntsham Bridge was a lifeline to their popular tourism businesses, yet it looks like a war zone because of a bid to prevent foot-and-mouth disease reaching an adjacent farm with rare breeds livestock.

Tourists have told the traders they thought they were going into a farmyard and had failed to see open-for-business signs at road level.

Paul Howells, owner of Wyedean Outdoor Adventure Centre, said residents wanted the road opened to two-way traffic as lights and disinfectant mats were keeping tourists away.

The area also needed to be cleaned and tidied so that it did not intimidate or give the impression that visitors were entering a foot-and-mouth area.

In their letter to the council, the residents say that they want the road in a state suitable for everyone to use, and not for the sole convenience of farmer Richard Vaughan of Huntsham Court Farm, who fears his rare Middle White pigs will catch the disease unless precautionary measures are kept in place.

The businesses of Symonds Yat East have a joint turnover normally in the region of some £1.7 million, said the letter.

"We are also responsible for the employment of 45 people, so please help us, not hinder us.

The reasons for the restrictions given by the local authority were inconsistent," the letter continued.

A spokesman for the council said that the authority was trying to strike a balance between the needs of tourism, which had been hit badly, and the control of foot and mouth which was prevalent in the area.

Initially, the authority put into place precautionary arrangements after meeting local people.

He pointed out that the road surface had been removed to allow disinfectant mats to be put in place. Workmen would have to spend time reinstating the road properly, he added.