HUNDREDS of people were needlessly caught in traffic through Winchester city centre on Saturday due to a set of temporary traffic lights being left a day longer than necessary.

Despite the works by Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) in Eastgate Street being completed on Friday evening May 12, the temporary lights enforcing single-file traffic remained throughout Saturday.

A streetlight blew around 1pm on Friday, leaving some houses in Eastgate Street without power until 10pm.

A SSEN spokesperson said: “Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) was alerted to a fault in Winchester on Friday 12 May, which had resulted in the traffic lights on Eastgate Street being off supply.

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“To ensure safety of road users and SSEN’s engineers, temporary traffic lights were installed and the main supply was repaired and reconnected at 10pm on Friday evening. The temporary traffic lights remained in situ until Saturday to enable the completion of further required works.

“SSEN apologises to customers for any inconvenience this power interruption and subsequent repairs may have caused.”

Contrary to SSEN’s statement, local resident and Green Party campaigner Richard Needham called the company at 10.30pm on Saturday night after the temporary traffic lights were left up all day, even though work had finished.

Mr Needham said: “The traffic was all backed up along North Walls and Chesil Street, with idling engines causing unnecessary noise and pollution.

“I thought this can’t be right as there was no hole in the road or work being done, the only obstruction was the traffic lights. Even at 10pm cars, buses and ambulances were backed up along Eastgate Street.

Hampshire Chronicle: Temporary traffic lights left in Eastgate Street

“It seemed ridiculous and completely unnecessary. Everyone had to suffer all day for no reason. The air quality in Winchester is bad enough. It was chaos for people. It must have been a miscommunication between SSEN and traffic management.”

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According to Mr Needham, the company admitted that the lights should have been removed earlier when speaking on the phone to him and took the temporary traffic lights during Saturday night.

Hampshire Chronicle: Richard Needham

The Green Party member continued: “There’s no joined up thinking. It was a lot of inconvenience, especially since Saturday is a busy day for people. I would have moved them myself if the lights were still there the next morning but I was so pleased to wake up and see it was all gone on Sunday.”

An anonymous member posted on the Facebook Group Winchester Rants: “Shout out and massive thanks to Richard Needham (from Winchester’s Green Party) for single handedly getting temporary traffic lights removed from Eastgate Street today. The workman lazily left them in place even though the work was completed on Friday. It caused unnecessary chaos in town yesterday, with cars forced to wait, engines idling, polluting the city - all for nothing.”