One of the main roads through Knebworth was closed all day today after contractors began work at 8am rather than 8pm.

Herts County Council arranged for the B197 London Road to be closed from 8pm to 5am so its contractor could complete maintenance works during the night.

But a misunderstanding led the contractor to close the road during the day instead, with confused travellers having to take detours – as buses coming in from Stevenage were forced to turn back.

A county council spokeswoman told this paper this afternoon: “We would like to sincerely apologise to residents for the temporary closure of London Road today, which was arranged to be closed from 8pm to 5am so our contractor could complete some night-time works.

“Due to a regrettable communications error, our contractor closed the road during the day.

“Once we were made aware of this error, we immediately instructed the contractor to leave the site and to reopen the road.

“They will now complete these essential maintenance works at night-time to ensure a minimum amount of disruption on this road.”