THE A338 Spur Road will be reduced to two lanes at Holdenhurst footbridge this evening as council engineers carry out an inspection of the Welcome to Bournemouth sign.

There will be outer lane restrictions in both directions from 7pm tonight until 6.30am tomorrow morning.

Bournemouth Council has yet to confirm the reason for the works, which were announced this afternoon.

The controversial illuminated welcome sign, erected in August last year, was out of action for more than a week last month due to problems with the electricity supply to the area.