Town's gridlock chaos came as no surprise

What do you get if you mix new traffic lights in Newtown with an unfinished computer system? asks Lembit Opik MP. Gridlock. That's exactly what happened last week when the power was turned on for the "new improved" traffic management system in the town, in parallel with the opening of the new Tesco.

Within minutes the traffic was queueing and everyone was late for everything.

None of this surprised the locals. Those who actually live in and know Newtown had predicted trouble from the beginning. Unfortunately, the people responsible for the changes were less informed and genuinely seemed to have been taken unawares.

Naturally, there's been quite a lot of finger pointing, and the council has been a little unhappy at being made the scapegoat in the situation. It may have a slight point because my investigations suggest the trouble was caused by the absence of certain equipment in the workings of the lights.

That could mean Tesco hadn't delivered the traffic solution they were obliged to before the store opened.

Nevertheless, you didn't have to be a road management genius to figure out that replacing a perfectly operational roundabout with annoying lights was going to make things worse. Nobody can seriously pretend that the series of lights on the main through road in Newtown is speeding things up. Certainly, it's extreme overkill to have the current set up which serves to patronise and delay motorists in equal measure.

At some point, we're going to start taking a more mature attitude towards drivers. For now, the misery continues, and someone needs to take responsibility for yet another backward step in the mobility of the county.