CORNWALL Council has heeded the concerns of worried residents who have complained about “horrific” roadworks which they say have been causing “mayhem” in the Clay Country area near St Austell.

The council has verified that the work will now be postponed and all traffic lights and other works will be removed from the area by the end of today (Wednesday, March 12).

A Bugle resident said: “Myself and many residents are absolutely fuming with the horrific roadworks planning by Cornwall Council in the Roche and Bugle area.

“There have been huge delays for months and it has recently become so much worse, with two more sets of roadworks added to the main road through Bugle, causing massive delays for through traffic and those already diverted from Roche through the village. Additionally, for us living in the village, we feel so trapped, with continuous queues literally blocking access to and from our homes. Locals are complaining to the council about this horrific planning. It is causing mayhem.”

A number of residents commented on social media this week about the problems. A person living at Roche Road in Bugle wrote: “Why has the council allowed another set of lights to be put up in Bugle at the pub? This is absolutely insane.

“There has been a gridlock in the village for many weeks with the roundabout, then the roadworks near Red Lane and now this. I would like someone to give the logic behind these works being agreed. The road cannot accommodate all this traffic and the village roads are an accident waiting to happen.”

Another resident added: “It’s absolutely ridiculous. It’s bad enough with the number of cars parked on the road and people who don’t leave enough room for oncoming traffic to get past – these new lights have made things 1,000 times worse.”

“I was stuck in this for 45 minutes … when we got to the Co-op an ambulance was trying to go towards Lanivet and was held up by the joke of traffic lights / jam chaos,” said another.

Following residents’ concerns on Tuesday morning, a Cornwall Council spokesperson confirmed the works would stop … for now.

They said: “Following reports from the local community about traffic congestion in the area, we will postpone the highway maintenance works until later in the year. As some of this work is already underway, we will make the area safe and remove all traffic management from the site by the end of the day on Wednesday”