As protests poured into the Free Press and dominated social media, local MP Ian Liddell Grainger said: “It is unthinkable that this situation should be allowed to continue until mid-February particularly since congestion is now holding up emergency vehicles and could see property and even lives put in danger.”
Yesterday (Thursday) in a bid to calm the situation, a county council spokesman announced that the manually-controlled traffic lights - which are being blamed for the chaos - will be switched off today (Friday) until Monday.
To allow the work to be carried out, temporary traffic lights and a 40mph speed limit will be in force on the A39 until mid-February next year.
As traffic jams, caused by the lights, built up on the first day of the work, Mr Liddell-Grainger said: “Yet again we see Somerset County Council imposing traffic restrictions on the route between Taunton and Minehead without giving the least thought as to how drivers are going to cope.”
With no diversions being announced drivers had no alternative but to wait in mile-long queues which regularly stretched back to Carhampton and Bilbrook.
One driver in a grid-locked queue on the Dunster straight this week reported that it had taken him one hour 20 minutes to travel a mile, one had taken over two hours to drive from Washford and another had joined the queue outside Williton and was over two hours late for a medical appointment.
Old Cleeve Parish Council this week sent a letter of protest to the county council after parishioners had complained about increased delays.
As the problems mounted, traffic bosses met on Wednesday to consider emergency solutions. Transport portfolio holder Cllr Mike Rigby said: “I am aware of the significant delays being caused by the roadworks and have instructed our team to find a solution.”
He said there were three options, two involving changes in traffic management. “The other is to remove the works from Friday 12pm to Monday 12pm if we can’t make the other two options work.” Yesterday it was decided to take this option.
Protests on social media have mounted throughout the week. Alison Foster said: “If you can waste money on this scheme then surely you can spend a bit more tax-payers’ money sorting out the traffic issues.”
Gaye Foote added: “So normal commute, Monday to Friday, will still be a nightmare. Just how is this meant to help?” Christopher West wrote: “We have enough problems in our lives without adding one which is totally unnecessary. Hardly anyone uses that cycle path anyway.”
Minehead’s deputy mayor, Cllr Toni Bloomfield said she was very concerned that the emergency services were experiencing serious hold-ups and schoolchildren’s bus travel had been disrupted, resulting in some children being late for school.
“Surely there are ways to avoid such serious traffic disruption - working at night, for instance,” she said. “Many Minehead businesses have been seriously disrupted by what is happening on the A39.”
Mr Liddell-Grainger agreed, adding: “The county council must at least double the current on-site workforce to speed up progress and consider introducing night-time and week-end working.
“And once the work has reached the Marsh Lane junction it absolutely must bring the old A39 back into use in order that two-way traffic can restart again. I understand it has already been asked to do that but refused.”
Minehead BID chairman Graham Sizer told the Free Press that he was very concerned about the situation and its effect on the town’s businesses.
He said: “I don’t believe the highways authorities had a clue about what mayhem this would cause when they planned it. There must be tens of thousands of pounds worth of commercial driver’s man-hours being lost every day. When Butlins visitors leave the camp on a normal changeover day, the queues on Seaward Way and the Dunster Straight are bad enough. The queues back out of town now start inside the Butlin’s main gate. Something has to be done.”
• See story, page 13
Comments
This article has no comments yet. Be the first to leave a comment.