'Carnage': Motorists held up again on busy Shrewsbury island plagued by traffic light trouble

The roundabout connects the busy A5 with the A49 and A5112. Recently motorists have complained about long delays getting onto, off of or through the junction - and Mr Brown says today, the last day before the long May Bank Holiday weekend, has been one of the worst yet.

He says much of the issues are caused by the sequencing of the traffic lights, with drivers entering the junction getting stuck at lights and having to queue, blocking motorists trying to get through in other directions.

"Every time there's a bank holiday it seems to get worse," Mr Brown said.

"It's happened for years and it's not the best island anyway, but the sequencing at the moment is atrocious.

"We've just had a coach in - I'm not sure where they were going - they were all... voicing their opinions about it, shall we say?

"Their words were 'carnage out there'."

Work to 'upgrade' the lights was carried out in March but more complaints about the sequencing of the lights followed.

Customers today have faced long waits to get off the garden centre car park and back on their way, Mr Brown said.

"They've probably backed up to half an hour to get off the island - half an hour to 40 minutes.

"It hasn't helped with the roadworks going on where the new houses are going [off Hereford Road, on the opposite corner of the roundabout] but that's got to be done."

He feared the impact on the restaurant's takings could be stark, on the evidence of the last few months.

"We will go down between 25 and 50 per cent. We've lost a whole lot of day trade due to the work that's been going on."

A National Highways spokesperson said: “There have been no issues with the traffic lights since the technology was readjusted last month. However, we are aware of heavy congestion at the roundabout today and are investigating whether this is related to the signals or the heavy volume of traffic ahead of the bank holiday weekend.”