TIMELY: Contractors have been praised for completing work on a busy 'rat run' a week ahead of schedule.

Motorists had been warned Southbank Street, in Leek, would be closed for 10 days for reconstruction work.

Many drivers use the road as a short cut between the A520 at Compton and the A523 Ashbourne Road.

Staffordshire County Councillor Steve Povey, pictured, said: "Praise where it is due. The workmen have done a superb job. They managed to get the work done in half the time. The work had needed doing for a long time."