WEST Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger has welcomed Somerset Council’s decision to halt disruptive roadworks between Dunster and Minehead.

Contractors have now been ordered to stop work on a new cycle track, bringing to an abrupt end months of frustrating delays and traffic congestion.

Mr Liddell-Grainger said the move represented ‘a large dose of common sense’ but warned, arrangements for restarting the £1 million project would need to be carefully managed if traffic chaos was not to return.

Council officials stepped in to withdraw the contract for the work at the end of last week after traffic lights had been reintroduced to the site, causing yet more problems for locals and holidaymakers alike.

Over the months the scheme has been underway traffic controls have seen vehicles queuing at times from Alcombe in one direction to Bilbrook in the other.

Drivers have reported taking up to two hours to travel from Carhampton to Minehead and scores of complaints have been lodged about the potential for delaying emergency service vehicles.

Mr Liddell-Grainger has made regular approaches to the county council asking for better traffic management.

He said: “I can only apologise to the thousands of people who have been adversely affected by this project.

“Even accepting it was necessary at all - which I do not - it has been an exercise in how not to organise a road scheme.

“There was an excellent opportunity to use the old A39 to carry one line of traffic past the site but instead the contractors blocked it with their equipment.

“Instead of blitzing the project with a big workforce, the contractors employed a handful of men.

“There was no thought given to nighttime working, to the fact that this is the only route into Minehead from the east, or, indeed, to the needs of the travelling public.

“As a result, not only local people but tourists have been grossly inconvenienced, as have delivery drivers and bus passengers, and there is no doubt that there has been an impact on Minehead’s economy.

“I regret the fact that workers on the project have been subjected to so much abuse from drivers but when roadworks were being so shabbily managed and people were watching day after day as progress was achieved only at the pace of an arthritic snail it was inevitable that feelings were going to boil over.

“If and when this project restarts we shall need to come at it from a totally different direction, putting the needs of drivers and the travelling public first and finding ways to work around them.”