MOTORISTS who have been facing lengthy hold-ups due to temporary traffic lights on the edge of Wellington have received an apology from supermarket firm Lidl.

But at the same time they were warned more roads misery was likely this weekend when the lights would be in operation again.

Somerset County Council said it was aware of the recent disruption and was liaising with the developer’s contractor to minimise further problems.

It said Lidl had been asked to carry out another letter drop to advise residents on roadworks which were coming up.

There was uproar at the beginning of the week when roadworks started at the Cades roundabout on the B3187 Taunton Road.

Some residents of the Cades housing estate complained on social media of taking up to 45 minutes to reach the main road, with inward queues stretching along Torres Vedras Drive and Aspin Road as far as the Aspin Close turning.

The problems resulted from traffic management put in while construction workers started building an entrance from Nynehead Road into a new Lidl store next to the roundabout.

Despite the temporary traffic lights being manually overseen during the morning rush hour on Monday, there were still complaints about lengthy delays to journeys in and out of the town.

The lights appeared not to have been in use for the remainder of the day and also not during Tuesday.

Some residents questioned why the roadworks could not be carried out during the non-peak times when there would be less disruption.

Now, Lidl has apologised for the ‘temporary disruption’ which was being caused.

A spokeswoman said: “As part of our planning agreement with the council, we are working to ensure our customers have convenient access to our new Wellington store.

“To allow these roadworks to take place in a safe and timely manner, traffic lights have been introduced to manage the flow of traffic during peak hours, or as needed.

“We would like to apologise for the temporary disruption while these improvements are carried out and look forward to opening the doors to our new store in the coming weeks.”

Somerset County Council’s highways department has approved the roadworks, which will continue until February 15, including a complete closure of Nynehead Road from February 13 to 15.

Wellington town Cllr Wayne Battishill, who lives on the Cades estate, said that although Lidl had issued an apology, the company did not appear to have taken any action over the phasing of the lights, which seemed to be the root of the complaints about delays.

Cllr Battishill said: “A lot of people are unhappy about being sat in their cars with a red light showing for so long which is causing frustration to build up.

“The sooner this work can be finished the better, and I know there are huge numbers of Wellington residents who are looking forward to being able to shop in Lidl once the supermarket is open.”

A county council spokesperson said: “We understand these works being carried out by the developer caused some disruption last weekend but we understand this work is necessary for access to the new store.

“We have been liaising with the developer’s contractor to minimise the disruption and ensure traffic management is as efficient as possible.

“We understand the contractor will be on site again this weekend under four-way lights, as a result we have requested further details are provided to residents on forthcoming plans in form of a letter drop.

“We understand there will be some disruption for a period while these works are carried out but our traffic control team is monitoring the situation.

“Should the disruption become excessive, we will pick this up with the contractor.”