PLANS to close York's inner ring road tonight for major sewer repairs have been postponed after it emerged that more work is needed than had been anticipated.

The inbound carriageway of Fishergate was due to shut from 9pm until 6am tomorrow to allow for repairs to a collapsed sewer, which is five metres below ground level.

But a Yorkshire Water spokesman revealed this afternoon that whilst carrying out repairs, workmen had noticed that some additional sewer re-lining work was required.

"This means that the inbound Fishergate road heading towards Castle Mills Bridge and Skeldergate Bridge will no longer fully close tonight at 9pm as originally planned - to enable us to remove the piling- and one lane will instead continue to remain open," he said.

“We now plan to remove the piling on Thursday at 9pm, which will require a full inbound road closure until 6am on Friday for which a diversion route will be put in place.

"The road will then be partially reopened at 6am, Friday and we hope to have it fully back to normal on both inbound lanes by Sunday evening.

"We’d like to thanks local residents and businesses for their continued patience.”

The partial closure of the road down to one lane for the past fortnight - creating a bottleneck on one of the inner ring road's busiest sections -has led to long queues developing on Fishergate and the A19 Fulford Road heading in to York during the rush hours.

The road fully closed in one direction last Thursday night to allow for the piling, with traffic diverted through the heart of the city centre via Paragon Street, Foss Islands Road, Peasholme Green and Stonebow and then through Coppergate.