Engineers to look at Shrewsbury roundabout after traffic light 'upgrade' causes hour-long delays
Engineers are set to look at the traffic lights on a busy roundabout after 'upgrades' caused Easter misery for drivers.
Motorists have complained about being stuck for up to an hour as they try to exit the service station and garden centre at Bayston Hill Roundabout, also known as Dobbies island, on the edge of Shrewsbury, where the A5 meets the A49 from south Shropshire and A5112 from the town centre and Meole Brace.
Work to upgrade the lights was carried out on Thursday, March 21, which drivers and business owners say coincides with when traffic problems got worse as drivers entering the junction getting stuck at lights on the roundabout. Queuing traffic then blocks other motorists heading in other directions.
Stuart Brown, restaurant manager at Dobbies Garden Centre, said the trouble started "a week last Friday".
"The sequencing of the lights is out at the moment, it's causing absolute mayhem," he said. "Our customers were taking an hour from the car park to the roundabout. They were rather upset and phoning, asking us to stop the traffic.
"It's affected our business, definitely, it's affected everybody on the whole park."
Tarek Bensaad, site manager at Burger King, said the roundabout has caused problems for years, with no break in the traffic lights to allow drivers leaving the services to get onto the roundabout, but noted the situation had got worse.
"On a normal day it's OK, but at the weekend it sometimes takes 40 minutes to leave," he said.
Ryan Williams, hotel manager at the Travelodge on Bayston Hill, described the situation as "horrendous".
"The last two weeks it's got worse. (The other day) it took me about 45 minutes to get out of here," he said.
National Highways confirmed that the "technology" at the junction had been upgraded, and contractors had been asked to examine the phasing of the lights.
National Highways Route Manager Joseph Walmsley said: “We are aware of the traffic issues encountered at the weekend and have asked our contractors to look at the phasing of the signals as soon as possible.
"The technology was recently upgraded and we’re assessing whether these changes may have led to the congestion. We are grateful to people for their patience while our specialists work to get traffic flowing more smoothly around the roundabout once again.”
One of the drivers stuck trying to get out of the Dobbies car park on Good Friday was Clive Whittall, from Worthen.
He explained that a logjam was created in the garden centre car park with drivers unable to get out and blocking those coming in.
"We got to the point where people were trying to get in but no-one could get out," he said.
Mr Brown also said that "angry" customers had been taken their frustrations out on Dobbies staff once they have got into the garden centre.
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