Multi-million traffic light misery ahead (From Gazette Series)

Multi-million traffic light misery ahead

FALFIELD'S "million pound traffic lights" are set to bring more misery for local drivers.

The detested signals at the M5/B4509 junction - mercifully out of action during the morning peak for the last nine months - are set to return to round-the- clock operation from next Wednesday.

This week there was an indication of possible horrors to come when "by mistake" the lights operated during the Monday morning rush hour, causing huge queues including tailbacks stretching back to Charfield.

The junction work and signals have already cost taxpayers approaching £750,000 and pressure is now once again mounting for the scheme to be abandoned once and for all.

Northavon MP Steve Webb has written to Secretary of State for Transport Alistair Darling calling for heads to roll.

"Local people have started calling these the million pound lights and the way things are going that is how much of our money will have been wasted," said the MP. "These were lights that virtually no-one wanted and which seem to achieve no useful purpose. The fact that the Highways Agency is still planning 24-hour operation will fill local people with horror.

"Heads should roll over this shocking waste of taxpayers' money."

Wickwar resident Andrew Price, who uses the motorway junction daily, was typical of many who contacted the Gazette this week.

"They don't ease congestion - they cause it because they block access to the M5 and A38 leading to unprecedented tailbacks," he said. "When will they realise that motorists regulate the traffic flow far more efficiently than traffic lights?"

Highways Agency spokesman Robin Miller said a different system of sequencing was now being adopted.

"It will use a timer system which will mean they stay on green for longer," he said. "The lights were set for off peak conditions when they were left on in error on Monday and it was no indication of how they will operate in future. We'd like to apologise for what happened on Monday."

He said the agency was pledged to introduce full-time signals controls to reduce casualties at the junction.