ANGRY motorists have blasted “ridiculous” scheduling of roadworks which has caused Stourport to be gridlocked during busy periods.

Residents, school pupils and visitors to the town were forced to negotiate long queues as a series of roadworks by Severn Trent Water, BT and Western Power Distribution took place simultaneously.

Roadworks include Severn Trent laying a new water pipe on the Kingsway, plus Western Power fitting a new supply substation along Windermere Way.

Western Power is also carrying out work in Minster Road and Worcester Road.

Worcestershire County Council said Western Power and Severn are working together as part of the Birmingham Resilience Scheme.

But the authority has been criticised for allowing a number of projects to be carried out at the same time, causing “gridlock” in the town for motorists.

Shuttle readers took to Facebook to express their anger over the problems.

Carl Taylor said: “Ridiculous. You have multiple roadworks taking place at the same time and it is causing bedlam – on Tuesday morning the town was in gridlock and it is not funny anymore.”

Rachelle Hornby said: “It was complete gridlock on Tuesday morning – all three lanes up Vale Road were backed up and the lights on the top of Vale Road changed red to green at least four times while I was sitting there without any movement due to the temporary lights on Minster Road still being on red.

“All I could think of was if it was necessary for any emergency service to warrant access this would not be able to happen at all.”

While, Nick Ganderton added: “Areley Kings to Stourport High School on Tuesday, it took my son more than an hour on the bus – it was gridlocked the whole way from start to finish, which obviously made him late.”

Councillor Marcus Hart, county council cabinet member for highways, said: “Both Western Power and Severn Trent are currently working together in a joint initiative, under the Birmingham Resilience Scheme, to get planned works completed as quickly and efficiently as possible.

“Temporary signals have been put into place that are manually controlled during peak hours, depending on the traffic sensitivity of the road.

“Working in tandem with the signals, spotters are being used to update the controller on queues that might be forming.”

Cllr Hart added: “Operatives, at management level, are also assessing traffic flow at peak times.

“Western Power have been very cooperative with Worcestershire County Council’s Streetworks team and have carried out all that has been asked of them.”