news story

13th April 2007

Falfield Traffic Lights - the Fiasco Continues

Northavon MP Steve Webb has condemned a decision by the Highways Agency to fund yet more alterations to the notorious J14 on the M5 at Falfield. The MP said he was shocked to receive a letter from 'Interroute', a company acting on behalf of the Highways Agency, with a long list of so-called further 'Design Improvements' to the junction.

The MP has already established that the works to the junction had cost around three quarters of a million pounds to date, and he described the further expenditure as 'scandalous'.

According to the letter from Interroute, the plans include:

* replacing a steel traffic sign opposite the Falfield Depot with a 'new sign mounted on a passively safe post that will deform or shear under impact';

* 'upgrading' the existing traffic signals controller, but still leaving the lights off during peak periods;

* adding two new traffic islands to replace the existing road markings;

Steve Webb said:

"It is time the Highways Agency called a halt to this madness. Huge sums of money have already been wasted on this junction, and we have ended up with lights that are largely useless, being turned off at the times when there is the most traffic and turned on to hold up traffic when flows are lighter.

"If the Highways Agency has money to burn, I'm sure that local people can think of many better uses for it than yet more tinkering with the Falfield junction".