Market Harborough Roadworks: Northampton Road Shut to 10 Oct

The road south out of Market Harborough is shut, and it stays shut into October.

The A508 Northampton Road closed on Monday 21 September for carriageway resurfacing. The county’s works register books it to 10 October. The statutory notice behind it allows the works up to 28 days, so 10 October is the plan rather than a guarantee.

One thing has changed in the record since last week. The register row that books this closure used to leave the road name blank, reading only “Future carriageway resurfacing Scheme”. The county’s update of 20 September now names it: Northampton Road, USRN 16400911, 21 September to 10 October, road closure. The road was never in doubt, because the statutory notice was explicit, but the register and the notice now agree.

Five side roads lose kerbside parking with it. Waiting and loading are banned at any time for about 30 metres from Northampton Road on:

• Clipston Street
• Scotland Road
• Lathkill Street
• Compass Point
• the access from the A508 to the leisure centre club house and the scout hut

The county has not published a diversion route. The notice says only that it will be signed on site.

A second four-week closure starts on Thursday, out at the Lutterworth end of the district. The county has made an order closing Pincet Lane, at North Kilworth and Husbands Bosworth, for its entire length, along with Lutterworth Road at North Kilworth between South Kilworth Road and High Street. It comes into force on 24 September and the notice allows the works up to four weeks. The register books both to 17 October. The job is carriageway patching, and the diversion will be signed on site.

Roads here are Leicestershire County Council’s job, not the district council’s. Everything below comes from the county’s own works register for Harborough district, headed “10 days from September 20, 2026”, plus the statutory traffic orders on the Public Notice Portal, National Highways for the A14 and the M1, and National Rail for the trains.

Northampton Road: the two permits that overlap

The resurfacing is not a job on its own. The register shows a separate permit on Northampton Road running from 2 September to 30 October for the conversion of an uncontrolled crossing to a toucan crossing, which is a crossing shared by people walking and cycling. That permit describes the crossing team as “working alongside maintenance team who will be resurfacing main road after central island removed and signal ducting installed”. So the island goes, the ducting goes in, then the road gets resurfaced.

Harborough Leisure Centre is on Northampton Road, at LE16 9HF. The notice names its club house access among the junctions losing parking, so anyone driving there this fortnight should expect to be inside a works zone.

A third, much smaller permit lands on the same road on 28 and 29 September, for Severn Trent to install a boundary box and meter. It is booked as no carriageway incursion.

The county has published no scheme page, cost or finished design for either the resurfacing or the toucan crossing, so this page carries neither.

What is closed right now

A booking sets the outer limit rather than a schedule, and the restriction only bites where the signs are actually up. That is why a road named here can be perfectly clear on the day.

Gone from this page since last week. Six jobs have run out and are no longer in the register: the emergency works to the crumbling chimney stack on St Mary’s Road, which ended on 22 September; Newcombe Street, a single day of patching on 21 September; Leicester Road, where Virgin Media had two-way signals to 22 September; Rugby Road at Lutterworth; Fleckney Road at Kibworth Beauchamp; and Mayns Lane at Burton Overy.

One booking has gone the other way, and one has vanished. Poultney Lane at Kimcote was due to reopen on 20 September and is now booked to 27 September. And Ireton Road in Market Harborough, which last week’s register booked for a Western Power Distribution road closure from 21 September to 7 October, does not appear anywhere in the register of 20 September. We could not establish today whether it was cancelled, completed or simply left out, and there is no statutory order for it either way, so we are not carrying last week’s claim forward as if it were still live.

Coming in the next fortnight

Two of those need a word of explanation.

The safety barrier retensioning is one job moving along the A6. The register books the same works, “VRS retensioning”, as a rolling lane closure at Great Easton and Great Glen on 21 to 24 September, at Kibworth Harcourt on 24 and 25 September, and then as a full road closure on Welham Lane at Great Bowden on 25 and 26 September. VRS stands for vehicle restraint system, the crash barrier.

The Furlongs is the Rockingham Road scheme reaching another junction. Ashley Way went under multi-way signals on 15 September on the same booking, and both run to 30 May 2027.

Five orders proposed for October

The county published a notice on 17 September setting out orders it intends to make. A notice of intention is not a decision, and none of these has been made yet. Two of them are in Market Harborough itself:

• Logan Street, for its entire length, from 19 October, for up to four days, for Severn Trent. The proposed diversion is Morley Street, Clarke Street and Highfield Street.
• The footpath from Park Drive to Burnmill Road, from 19 October, for up to five days, for county council patching. The diversion would be signed on site.
• High Street, North Kilworth, from 19 October, for up to one day, for Openreach. The proposed diversion is Hawthorne Road, Green Lane and the A4304.
• Palmers Lane, Goadby, from 20 October, for up to three days, for Severn Trent.
• Hallaton Road, Blaston, from 22 October, for up to two days, for Severn Trent.

Two more, published on 10 September, are also still intentions and not decisions. Church Street in Market Harborough would close for its entire length from 15 October for up to two days for Severn Trent, and The Green at Husbands Bosworth would close for a single day from the same date for an Openreach pole replacement.

New speed limits across the villages, in force since 14 September

A permanent order changing speed limits on roads across the district came into force on 14 September. It is not temporary and it is not tied to any works.

Leicestershire County Council lists it on its own traffic management consultations page as scheme HTWMT/6098, a made moving order for “various roads, Harborough”, brought into force on 14 September 2026. The statutory notice, dated 10 September, gives the order its full name: the imposition of 20mph and 30mph speed limits and the imposition of de-restriction to the national speed limit on various roads in various parishes in the district of Harborough.

The parishes named in the published notice include Smeeton Westerby, South Kilworth, Stockerston, Broughton Astley, Swinford, Theddingworth, Thorpe Langton, Thurnby, Tilton on the Hill, Halstead, Tur Langton, Ullesthorpe, Upper Bruntingthorpe, Walton, Welham and Willoughby Waterleys. Three lengths go the other way, up to the national speed limit: two stretches of Lutterworth Road at Walcote, and Main Street at Welham where it meets Thorpe Langton Road.

What we cannot tell you is which roads get 20 and which get 30. The notice column published on the Public Notice Portal begins part way through the list, so the headings that separate the 20mph roads from the 30mph roads are not in it, and the council’s own copy of the order is a 108-page scanned document with no readable text. If you want the limit for your own road, the council says the order and its map can be inspected at County Hall in Glenfield. Anyone wanting to challenge the order’s validity in the High Court has six weeks from the date of the notice.

Trains: normal this weekend, then four disrupted late nights

There are trains at Market Harborough this Saturday and Sunday. That is worth saying plainly, because there were none last weekend.

There is engineering work on 26 and 27 September, but it is on a different line. Network Rail is closing all lines between Leicester and Peterborough, so CrossCountry buses replace trains along that route all weekend, and East Midlands Railway’s Saturday morning Nottingham to Norwich services are diverted away from East Midlands Parkway, Loughborough, Melton Mowbray, Oakham and Stamford. Market Harborough is on the Midland Main Line to St Pancras, not on the Leicester to Peterborough route, so none of that touches the town’s own services.

The late nights are the problem, from Monday 28 September to Thursday 1 October. Engineering work between Wellingborough and Leicester closes some lines overnight for four nights running. On each of them:

• the 23:35 London St Pancras to Nottingham will not call at Market Harborough
• a rail replacement bus runs between Kettering and Market Harborough or Leicester
• on Monday and Tuesday the train leaves Leicester at 01:52 and runs up to 34 minutes late to Nottingham
• on Wednesday and Thursday it leaves Kettering at 01:00 and runs up to 29 minutes late

This week’s overnight work south of Kettering finishes on Friday. Until then the 23:35 from St Pancras leaves Kettering earlier than usual, at 00:56, and the 04:32 Corby to St Pancras does not call at Bedford, with a replacement bus between Wellingborough and Bedford.

Normal times are on our trains to London page.

The A14 and the M1 this week

National Highways’ closure report for 22 to 28 September keeps the A14 westbound closed between junctions 8 and 3, 8pm to 6am, on the nights of 22, 23, 24 and 25 September. The westbound entry and exit slip roads at junctions 5, 6, 7 and 8 close with it, and a westbound layby in the same stretch is shut continuously from 1pm on 21 September to 6am on Saturday. Nothing is listed for the Saturday or the Sunday.

Then it swaps sides. From the night of Monday 28 September the same scheme closes the A14 eastbound between junctions 2 and 8, 8pm to 6am, with the eastbound slip roads at junctions 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 closing too, and an eastbound layby shut from 1pm on 28 September to 6am on 3 October. If you have got used to the westbound closure and route round it, the direction you need to avoid changes on the Monday.

It is one scheme throughout: carriageway, slip road, layby and lane closures for maintenance on the A14 in both directions between junctions 2 and 8, with the diversion signed on the National Highways and local authority network.

For anyone using M1 junction 20 at Lutterworth, there is nothing in the national report on the M1 itself at junctions 19, 20 or 21 during the week. The M69 is a different matter. Its southbound carriageway from M1 junction 21 to junction 1 at Hinckley closes from 8pm to 6am on the nights of 23, 24 and 25 September, with the southbound exit slips at junctions 1 and 2 closing with it. The northbound carriageway from junction 1 to M1 junction 21 closed on the night of 22 September. On the night of 28 September the M69 southbound link to the M6 at junction 2 closes from 9pm to 6am. Junction 21 is about 20 miles from Market Harborough by road, on the edge of Leicester.

Closure reports are republished weekly, so check the link below rather than this paragraph if you are reading it later in the month.

Rockingham Road: what is happening now

Phase 1 of the Market Harborough Transport Programme started on 17 August at the Gores Lane junction. The permanent signals there went off the following morning and were replaced with temporary three-way signals. The county council’s update of 18 August says those signals stay until November 2026 and warns of delays on Gores Lane, advising drivers to allow extra time or use another route. That is still the latest entry on the scheme page, checked again on 23 September.

The works register is more precise about the permits. It shows:

• Gores Lane: multi-way signals from 18 August to 26 March 2027, for replacing and updating the existing signals, realigning and widening the carriageway for an extra turning lane, and building 3m shared-use paths
• Rockingham Road: a road closure from 3 August to 31 May 2027, for resurfacing from the Hanson entrance junction to the Ashley Way junction, and multi-way signals to 26 March 2027 for the footway widening and the raised crossings
• Riverside: multi-way signals to 30 May 2027, for a new 3m shared footway and cycleway, with raised crossings at three junctions along Rockingham Road, including the station car park entrance, the Halfords and IMO car wash entrance and the Riverside junction, each fitted with dynamic road studs
• Ashley Way, newly booked from 15 September, and The Furlongs: works to 30 May 2027, each getting a shared-use crossing with the pedestrian refuge island and kerb line realigned and the tactile paving repositioned

The statutory order behind the scheme prohibits through traffic on Clarence Street for its entire length, on Rockingham Road from Great Bowden Road to the Euro Business Park, and on Riverside, Gorse Lane, The Furlongs and Ashley Way for 50 metres from Rockingham Road. Waiting and loading are banned at any time on Clarence Street, on St Mary’s Road from Clarence Street to Great Bowden Road, and on the same 50-metre stretches. That order came into force on 3 August 2026, has a maximum duration of 18 months and allows the works themselves to run for up to 12 months.

The council’s own scheme FAQ puts the estimated base cost at around £1.9m, with a contingency on top, paid for by Section 106 developer contributions and an Active Travel England grant rather than from council tax.

The Clarence Street one-way trial

Clarence Street is being trialled as one-way northbound. It went in as a trial so the effect on nearby junctions, including Albert Road, can be watched before anyone decides whether to make it permanent.

Two periods matter. The trial runs for 18 months. Comments are open for six months from the start, which is the window in which what you say counts towards the decision. Feedback goes to the project team at mhtsphase1@leics.gov.uk.

Charging an electric car in town

Five of the chargers at The Commons car park in Market Harborough are out of action. Harborough District Council says they will be replaced with new units later this year. Alternatives in town are at Angel Street, Doddridge Road and St Mary’s West car parks.

The council has also brought new 22kW chargers into service at Station Road in Lutterworth, Orchard Road in Broughton Astley, School Road in Kibworth, the North Memorial Hall on Main Street in Tugby, and the Allerton Project visitor centre at Loddington.

The routes that carry the town

Between schemes, these are the roads worth knowing. Market Harborough’s road layout is simpler than most towns its size, which is a strength when things run and a weakness when one route shuts.

• A6 north to Great Glen, Kibworth and Leicester. The A6 bypasses Market Harborough to the east, which is why the town centre is calmer than a town on a trunk route usually is.
• A4304 west to Lutterworth and M1 junction 20, about 11 miles away. This is the motorway route and the reason Lutterworth trades on car access while Market Harborough trades on trains. It leaves town over Lubenham Hill, which is the road under signals until 20 November.
• A427 east through Dingley and the Northamptonshire villages to Corby, and on to Oundle. Twenty-one miles end to end, and the road that makes Corby a realistic commute.
• A508 south to Northampton, as Northampton Road. This is the one closed until 10 October.
• B6047 north-east to Melton Mowbray, by way of Tur Langton and Tilton on the Hill.
• A14 runs across the south of the district, the east-west freight route to Kettering and the A1.

The A6 north: two schemes to watch

A6 Kibworth, Leicester Road and Wistow Road roundabout. The county council says this roundabout “operates over capacity” at peak times, producing long queues and unreliable journeys. A rebuilt layout is designed to increase capacity and improve lane use on the approach. Construction is planned to start in summer 2027 and finish in winter 2027, funded by Section 106 money secured from Kibworth development after a 2017 study of cumulative growth in the area.

A6 Oadby, The Parade and Brabazon Road. A separate scheme started on 3 August 2026 and runs about 16 weeks, so into late November. New and upgraded signal-controlled crossings, improved crossings at Regent Street and across Harborough Road, raised crossings on Lyndhurst Road, Stoughton Road and Victoria Court, resurfaced footways and renewed traffic signals. Phase 2, on Brabazon Road, starts mid-January 2027 and finishes early April 2027. The budget is £1.9 million, of which Active Travel England awarded nearly £900,000. Oadby is not in this district, but it is on the road to Leicester, so it is on the commute.

What it means for you

If you drive south out of town, the A508 Northampton Road is closed and the register books it to 10 October. There is no published diversion, so follow the signs. The A427 to Corby and the A6 north are the alternatives out of town.

If you drive between North Kilworth and Husbands Bosworth, Pincet Lane and part of Lutterworth Road close from Thursday 24 September for up to four weeks, booked to 17 October.

If you are catching a train this weekend, Market Harborough’s own services are running normally. The engineering work on 26 and 27 September is on the Leicester to Peterborough line, which the town is not on.

If you use the last train home from St Pancras, the 23:35 to Nottingham will not stop at Market Harborough on any night from Monday 28 September to Thursday 1 October. A replacement bus runs from Kettering instead.

If you drive in or out of town to the west, the Lubenham Hill lights are up until 20 November, covering Coventry Road, Brookfield Road and Hill Top Close as well.

If you use the A14, the overnight closure is westbound between junctions 8 and 3 until Friday night, and then switches to eastbound between junctions 2 and 8 from Monday 28 September.

If you drive the Rockingham Road corridor, the Gores Lane junction is on temporary three-way signals and the junction works are permitted until 26 March 2027. The Furlongs joins the scheme on 29 September, with multi-way signals booked to 30 May 2027.

If you live off Rockingham Road, Clarence Street, St Mary’s Road, Riverside, Gorse Lane, The Furlongs or Ashley Way, the through-traffic order affecting you is in force now. Access for residents is not what a through-traffic prohibition removes, but parking on Clarence Street and that stretch of St Mary’s Road is gone while the signs are up.

If you drive the A6 north towards Kibworth and Leicester, or use Harborough Road at Foxton or the Langtons, the resurfacing closure is booked to 26 September. The register does not state the hours, so check the signs or one.network before you set off at night. Expect the safety barrier crews to be working along the same corridor this week, at Great Glen on Wednesday and Thursday, at Kibworth Harcourt on Thursday and Friday, and on Welham Lane at Great Bowden on Friday and Saturday.

If you use Station Road in Broughton Astley, the bridge deck replacement at the Cosby Road and Main Street junction is booked until 18 October. If you drive through Great Glen, London Road is closed until 5 October.

If you shop in the town centre, The Square has work from 29 September to 2 October, with tree pits taken out and paving slabs relaid.

If you drive in the villages, check your road’s speed limit. The order took effect on 14 September and covers roads in at least sixteen parishes.

If you walk at Foxton, footpath A22 is closed for its whole length until 23 January, and the bridleway off Swingbridge Street is closed until 16 October.

If you are parking at the station, it has 314 spaces including 32 accessible ones and fills on weekday mornings. The approach from the north and east is along Rockingham Road. There is no park and ride in Harborough district.

Why all this is happening now

Almost every scheme on this page is paid for by Section 106 contributions from housebuilders rather than from council tax, which tells you what is driving it. The district’s new Local Plan allocates land for at least 6,422 homes, 1,350 of them in Market Harborough itself, and the county council is explicit that the Rockingham Road junctions are being rebuilt so they can cope “under the pressure of development growth in the town”. Our planning page has the numbers and the sites.

If you are heading out rather than commuting, Foxton Locks and the rest are on our things to do page, with parking charges.

Where to check before you travel

• one.network shows live and planned roadworks on Leicestershire’s roads on a map, including the small stuff this page does not cover.
• Leicestershire County Council weekly roadworks update for Harborough is the county’s own register of every booked job in the district, refreshed weekly.
• Public Notice Portal carries the statutory orders themselves.
• National Highways road closure report for the A14 and the M1, which are not the county council’s responsibility.
• National Rail engineering works for weekend closures on the Midland Main Line.

Frequently asked questions

Is Northampton Road in Market Harborough closed?

Yes. The A508 Northampton Road closed on 21 September 2026 from Springfield Street to the county boundary, for carriageway resurfacing. The county’s works register books the closure to 10 October and the statutory order allows the works up to 28 days. No diversion route has been published; the notice says it will be signed on site.

Which Market Harborough roads have roadworks at the moment?

Northampton Road is closed to 10 October. Rockingham Road is closed in part for resurfacing between the Hanson entrance and Ashley Way, and the Gores Lane junction is on temporary three-way signals. Lubenham Hill, Coventry Road, Brookfield Road and Hill Top Close are under multi-way signals until 20 November for cycleway works. North of town, the A6 Market Harborough Bypass and Harborough Road at West Langton and Foxton are closed for resurfacing until 26 September.

Are there trains from Market Harborough this weekend?

Yes. The engineering work on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 September closes the Leicester to Peterborough line, which Market Harborough is not on, so the town’s own St Pancras services are not affected. The disruption comes the following week: the 23:35 from St Pancras will not call at Market Harborough on any night from Monday 28 September to Thursday 1 October, with a replacement bus from Kettering.

When does Pincet Lane at North Kilworth reopen?

The order closing Pincet Lane and part of Lutterworth Road comes into force on 24 September 2026 and allows the works up to four weeks. The works register books the closure to 17 October. The order itself has a maximum duration of three months, which is the legal outer limit rather than the expected length of the job.

When do the Lubenham Hill roadworks finish?

The county council’s works register books them from 14 September to 20 November 2026. That is the permit end date rather than a promise, and the same booking covers Coventry Road, Brookfield Road, Hill Top Close and the Lubenham Hill service road.

How long will the Rockingham Road works last?

The traffic order has a maximum duration of 18 months and permits the works to run for up to 12 months. The works register books the Gores Lane junction until 26 March 2027 and the Rockingham Road resurfacing until 31 May 2027.

Have the speed limits changed in Harborough villages?

Yes. A permanent order imposing new 20mph and 30mph limits, and de-restricting three short lengths to the national speed limit, came into force on 14 September 2026. It covers roads in at least sixteen parishes. The council’s published copy of the order is a scanned document, so the limit for an individual road is not readable from it; the order and its map can be inspected at County Hall in Glenfield.

Who is responsible for roads in Market Harborough?

Leicestershire County Council is the highway authority. Harborough District Council handles planning, bins and parking enforcement but not the roads themselves. The A14 and M1 are National Highways.

Sources

• Leicestershire County Council, works in progress planned over the 10 days from September 20, 2026, Harborough, the county’s own weekly works register, for every closure, date and works description on this page. The file rolls forward at the same address each week.
• Leicestershire County Council temporary traffic orders, dated 17 September 2026, for the Pincet Lane and Lutterworth Road order made for 24 September, the Woodway Lane and Green Lane orders at Claybrooke Parva, and the five orders proposed for October.
• Leicestershire County Council temporary traffic orders, dated 2 September 2026, for the Northampton Road closure, its extent, the 28-day works period and the five side roads losing waiting and loading.
• Leicestershire County Council temporary traffic orders, dated 10 September 2026, for Church Street, The Green at Husbands Bosworth and the district-wide highway maintenance order of 14 September.
• Leicestershire County Council speed limit order for various roads in Harborough district, notice dated 10 September 2026, for the 20mph and 30mph order and the de-restricted lengths.
• Traffic management consultations, Leicestershire County Council, for scheme HTWMT/6098 and its 14 September in-force date.
• Leicestershire County Council temporary traffic orders, dated 3 September 2026, for Ullesthorpe Road at Gilmorton.
• Leicestershire County Council temporary traffic orders, dated 30 July 2026, for the Rockingham Road and Clarence Street prohibition and its duration.
• National Highways 7 day closure report, Tuesday 22 to Monday 28 September 2026, last updated 22 September, for the A14 junction 8 to 3 closures, the eastbound switch on 28 September, the slip roads, the laybys and the M69 closures at M1 junction 21.
• Amended 23:35 London St Pancras to Nottingham service from Monday 28 September to Thursday 1 October, buses replace trains between Leicester and Peterborough on 26 and 27 September and the amended St Pancras service from Tuesday 22 to Friday 25 September, National Rail.
• Market Harborough Transport Programme, Leicestershire County Council, checked 23 September 2026, for the Gores Lane update of 18 August, the design and the Clarence Street trial, and its scheme FAQ for the £1.9m estimated base cost.
• A6 Kibworth Leicester Road / Wistow Road Roundabout Scheme and Oadby A6: crossing and junction safety works, Leicestershire County Council, checked 23 September 2026.
• Latest updates, Harborough District Council, checked 23 September 2026, for the EV charging points.
• Harborough Leisure Centre, Everyone Active, for the Northampton Road address.

Not established anywhere we could reach: what became of the Ireton Road closure that last week’s register booked to 7 October and this week’s register does not list at all; which of the roads in the village speed limit order get 20mph and which get 30mph; and the design, cost and length of the Northampton Road and Lubenham Hill schemes, for which the county has published no scheme page. Everything else on this page was taken from the sources above on 23 September 2026. Roadworks move. Check one.network or the signs before you set off.