MOTORISTS were being advised to drive with extra care through the centre of Wellington on Wednesday evening (February 7).

It followed the failure of town centre traffic lights at the crossroads outside Wetherspoon’s Iron Duke public house.

All four sets of lights failed in Fore Street, High Street, North Street, and South Street, causing temporary chaos before drivers realised what had happened.

National Grid engineers working to fix a fault with Wellington's town centre traffic lights.
National Grid engineers working to fix a fault with Wellington's town centre traffic lights. (Tindle News)

Engineering teams from National Grid were called out and began working on underground cabling outside the town’s Co-op supermarket to fix the fault.

The incident came as persistent rain started to fall across the town ahead of a Met Office yellow weather warning coming into force at 2 am on Thursday.

Drivers were slowly passing through the centre of Wellington after a traffic lights failure on Wednesday evening.
Drivers were slowly passing through the centre of Wellington after a traffic lights failure on Wednesday evening. (Tindle News)

The Met Office warned of heavy rainfall which was expected to last all day and into the early hours of Friday with the warning expiring at 6 am.

Some disruption to transport was expected because of the rain causing spray and flooding on the roads.

The traffic lights were working again by daybreak on Thursday, although excavations in the pavement outside the supermarket remained to be filled in.

National Grid engineers worked through the night to repair Wellington's town centre traffic lights.
National Grid engineers worked through the night to repair Wellington's town centre traffic lights. (Tindle News)