A £1.3M road improvement scheme which has choked one of Oxford’s main routes for almost a year will over-run by at least two months, it emerged last night.

Families living close to the London Road improvement scheme, in Headington, say the repairs have been a nightmare with road rollers and dumper trucks shaking foundations of homes.

And, since Monday, April 20, residents in Valentia Road and Headington Road say they have had sleepless nights with work going on until 3am.

Contractors say they have no choice but to work at night to avoid chronic disruption to daytime traffic.

Jo Thomas, 41, a mum-of-three from Valentia Road, said: “A lot of the residents are frustrated.

“You can hear the work vehicles going up and down the street into the early hours. They have given me sleepless nights on a couple of occasions but it’s worse for the people at the end of the street by the roadworks.”

Work on the scheme, which will see a new outbound bus lane between Gipsy Lane and Osler Road and a 20mph zone between Pullens Lane and Headley Way, started on July 21, last year.

The work, which covers over a kilometre of the road, was scheduled to finish on March 6 – but is not now expected to be completed until the end of this month.

Late night work is due to finish on Saturday, Oxfordshire County Council said last night.

Helen Day, 47, a mum-of-two from Headington Road, said: “In the day there’s the constant noise and dirt from diggers, cement mixers, forklift trucks, dump trucks, and steamrollers.

“You can hear the pneumatic drills at the Gypsy Lane section and when they’ve been asphalting outside our house it was extremely bad. I was lying in bed and you could feel the vibrations.”

Mrs Day added: “I’m really disappointed it’s slipped by so much, its frustrating to know we’ll have had two months more disruption than we needed.”

City councillor Mark Lygo, who lives in Valentia Road, said: “It’s been a complete nightmare with work going on until three in the morning.

“The area has been treated like a building site.”

Last week, Oxford City Council issued a notice ordering the contractors, Enterprise, to stop using a work compound in Valentia Road Recreation Ground because it was in breach of a licence preventing it being used after 6pm.

The builders are continuing to use the compound but the council said problems were now isolated.

Workers are set to move to a new site with the help of Oxford Brookes University, in a bid to cut disturbance.

Enterprise operations manager Leon Jolly said: “Although night time works are going to be difficult for people, the impact on Oxford and its residents would be kept at a minimum.

“If the work was done during the day it would be very disruptive to say the least.

“I have left my mobile number with the residents and said if anybody does something they shouldn’t, ring me and we’ll stop them, but I have never received a phone call.”

County council spokes-man Paul Smith blamed utility company delays in diverting pipes for the setbacks.