FRUSTRATED residents will get the chance to quiz council officers over the delays holding up a multi-million pound roundabout improvement scheme.

People living near Gants Hill roundabout face up to six months more disruption than first planned after a set of utility pipes were unexpectedly uncovered during the early stages of a £7.2 million project to improve the site for motorists and pedestrians.

They will now be able to question officials from Redbridge Council - which is helping to fund the scheme - about the details of the delays at a specially arranged public 'surgery' on Tuesday at Valentines Mansion in Ilford.

The event will take place at the Gardener's Cottage in the mansion's grounds from 12pm until 2pm.

The scheme, which will involve a wide range of traffic management and pedestrian access improvements at the busy junction is now expected to be completed in April 2011 - rather than the original target date of summer 2010.

The long-awaited project had been welcomed by local residents who complained for years about the poor state of the roundabout’s underpasses and the safety of pedestrians in the area.

But now they and the borough's motorists could face months of extra inconvenience while the pipes - thought to be part of a former Second World War underground factory - are moved.