The ‘Fun’ closure of the A30 over the weekend of the Royal Cornwall Show leads to the return

A planned weekend closure of the A30 has been scrapped after it was branded “ridiculous” as it will coincide with the Royal Cornwall Show. National Highways announced last week that the A30 will once again be closed overnight throughout this week and completely over the weekend as it steps up work on the £330 million upgrade between Chiverton and Carland Cross.

This week, the A30 between Chiverton and Mitchell – more than 11 miles – will be closed overnight for four nights until Thursday (June 6). The closure will be between 20:00 and 06:00 each day. A 16 mile diversion route will be in place between the A3076 from Mitchell to Quintrell Downs and then the A3075 to the Chiverton Cross junction.

Then there was due to be a full weekend closure of the A30 between Chiverton and Summercourt from 9pm on Friday (June 7) until 6am on Monday (June 10). The closure would have a similar diversion and coincide with Cornwall’s biggest annual event from Thursday to Saturday.

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For these closures, local access north and south to Chiverton and via the B3284 to Chybucca will be maintained throughout. The link from the A39 north will also be maintained via the B3285. National Highways said the closures are focused on surface and infrastructure works along the route.

National Highways said the recent overnight and weekend closures were necessary to meet the highway’s June opening date after months of rain and delays.

However, the plans to close were not welcomed by everyone as they were seen as potentially conflicting with the Royal Cornwall Show in Wadebridge – Cornwall’s biggest event. Last year, over 118,000 people participated in the event.

Farmers attending the show were concerned that the A30 closures could have a huge impact as it would lead to massive queues and long delays. Bridgette Clamp, of Nancledra, near Penzance, who will be showing her pedigree Red Ruby Devon cattle at the show, told the BBC: “To close it and give us a new, longer diversion on that Royal Cornwall weekend is ridiculous. For animal welfare, this. it’s just too much straw for the camel’s back.

“There will be hitching points, there will be trailers of all different widths and sizes and not just cattle, there will be sheep and horses, there will be lots of horse competitions at the Royal Cornwall Show and Saturday will be a nightmare.”

However, since the concerns came to light, Chris Riddle, ssecretary of the Royal Cornwall Agricultural Society, has now confirmed that fFollowing discussions with the National Highways there will now be no planned daytime closures for the new A30 project during the three days of the Royal Cornwall Show on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

He added: “We are very pleased to hear that in this case common sense has prevailed and that the disruption to traffic heading towards the show during the day will be mitigated. We would however advise that anyone visiting the Show this week allows plenty of time for their journey and has a great time while they are here.”