EXASPERATED motorists in Burnley had been praying for the end of major roadworks at the town's busiest roundabout - only for the arrival of new traffic lights to cause chaos.


Four new sets of signals were turned on for the first time at Barracks roundabout yesterday - and drivers were left bumper-to-bumper along Padiham Road, Accrington Road and Pendle Way.


Road bosses at Lancashire County Council, who were blasted after the official switch-on was delayed for at least a fortnight, have apologised.


But fed-up drivers are now questioning why morning traffic is only being allowed to crawl through the series of lights, between Gannow and Barracks roundabouts, with priority apparently being given to Westway cars.


Drivers from parts of Ightenhill and Gannow are now no longer able to short-circuit their journey after the middle section of Gannow roundabout was filled in, during an earlier phase of the works. 


John Gillson said: "It took forever to get off the Pendle Way estate - and then when you did get onto the roundabouts you were only allowed to go for about 20 yards before you hit another set off traffic lights.


"In the end I gave up and went back down Padiham Road and there was still traffic queuing there."


John Walker said on social media: "The new lights took me an extra 15 minutes to get to work."


Another driver added: "The queues are worse today than they were when they were doing the work."


Graeme Leathard, principal engineer for Lancashire County Council, said: "We're very sorry for the delays people experienced on Thursday morning at the Barracks roundabout.


"We activated the signals on Wednesday night and the programme we had put in place to change the signal timings worked well.


"However, the programme that the signals switched to on Thursday, tailored to the different demands of the morning traffic, did not work as intended, leading to the delays.


"The signals have now been reprogrammed and a team will be on site during today's morning rush hour to make adjustments if necessary."


The signals at the top of Trafalgar Street were also switched on yesterday and will also be monitored.