THREE years of road misery could be in store for Selby motorists, it was revealed today.

Yorkshire Water will restore and replace more than 30 miles of water mains in and around the town, at a cost of more than £10 million.

A company spokesman said disruption was "unavoidable". He said: "There's no such thing as a good time to dig up a road. It will always cause some disruption, but we're working with the local authorities to try to minimise that inconvenience."

Work is expected to begin this month on the service reservoir at Brayton Barff - and will continue on a large part of the Selby ring main until 2009.

Much of the work will take place on private land, but roadworks will be required in many places.

Peter Sowray, North Yorkshire County Council's highways chief, said: "Work like this has to be done, and it's unfortunate that water mains run underneath the road in many places.

"I'm sure Yorkshire Water will liaise with county council officers to mitigate disruption as much as possible."

Selby mayor Fred Matthews said: "Many people in Selby are fed up with roads being dug up. Last year, Transco roadworks were all over the place, and they weren't managed as well as they could have been. Temporary traffic lights failed and barriers were left lying around.

"I just hope that whatever traffic management that is put in place is properly managed."

The Selby ring main serves Selby, Brayton, Barlby, Snaith, Goole, Knottingley, Ackworth, Pontefract and the northern part of Askern. Crews from Balfour Beatty Utilities will carry out the work, but the order in which it will be done has not yet been confirmed. The total cost of the project will be £10.8 million.

The Yorkshire Water spokesman said: "The unavoidable thing is that there will be an element of disruption of local roads, as and when it is necessary for us to work on them."

He said the work would be carried out in phases, and the company was keen to discuss details of each phase with the local community.

"We will be holding drop-in meetings to keep residents informed about what's going on in their area," he said.

"Although we know all about the infrastructure underground, the local community know the patch a lot better than us, so they may know about potential problems and things that can help us minimise inconvenience.

"In other areas where we've spent substantial sums recently, there has been some disruption, but we've learned from our experiences.

"If we can foster positive working relationship with the community, it's better for everybody involved."