Notorious M5 lights to be turned back on (From Gazette Series)

Notorious M5 lights to be turned back on

FALFIELD'S infamous traffic lights at the M5 junction may be switched back on again during the morning peak period.

Highways Agency chiefs this week admitted that tests were being carried out with a view to reactivating the detested signals.

The revamped junction - originally costed at £460,000 - was intended to reduce traffic tailbacks on the motorway and also to improve safety for drivers exiting onto the B4509.

The lights were, however, switched off during the morning peak last May, only a month after they were introduced, following horrendous traffic delays and a welter of complaints from angry motorists.

The early morning gridlock virtually disappeared at a stroke and the lights - completed at a cost of around £700,000 - were condemned as a white elephant and the only peak hour signals in the country that were switched off when traffic was heaviest.

Now HA bosses are awaiting a new report from engineers on whether the lights could resume full-time operation without again causing chaos.

Spokesman Robin Miller said: "This always was - and still is - a safety scheme and that's why we need to have another look at it. We can't just forget the safety issues and walk away.

"It is possible they could be switched back on again if we can find a way of setting the timings without causing major disruption."

He said the results of recent experimental morning switch-ons were now being collated.

"We still want to see if the lights can operate satisfactorily through the morning peak. The lights have recently been switched on again in the morning with an engineer in attendance to monitor what happens. He was able to switch them back off again if traffic built up.

Mr Miller said the signals were having the desired effect at other times of the day and there were definitely no plans to dispense with them altogether.

Regular junction user Stephen Coombs from Woodford said: "I don't believe it. Why can't the Highways Agency leave well alone?

"It's quite obvious to anyone using the junction that there have been no serious rush hour tailbacks since they were switched off at the beginning of May. If the Agency have been monitoring traffic flow, it should also be clear to them."

Dursley commuter Roy Brine, who works in Clifton, told the Gazette that the re-introduction of the lights had led to massive frustration and unacceptable waiting as drivers tried to negotiate the traffic light system. He said: "I had quietly hoped that over the course of a year of so, the lights would be disabled for longer and longer periods, until somebody quietly switched them off for good.

From this week's action of re-introducing the lights it is apparent that they are prepared to spend even more money trying to re-manage and re-engineer the system, to some how justify the initial cost, and they will not admit that it was all a massive waste of money."

"Why do they persist in using these lights when they are obviously not wanted by the people who use the junction. It can only be a face-saving measure for someone."