Council Leader calls for inquiry after gridlock in Exeter

Exeter City Council Leader Pete Edwards has called for an inquiry into the traffic chaos that brought Exeter to a standstill yesterday (Wednesday 2 August).

Most of the city became gridlocked following an accident on the A38 near Haldon Hill and some people were stuck in traffic for up to four hours.

Cllr Edwards said these sort of incidents were happening more and more often and Devon County Council as the transport authority needed to focus its efforts on tackling these issues.

“I have never seen Exeter’s roads so bad,” blasted Cllr Edwards. “How can an accident on Haldon cause gridlock in the centre of Exeter. The highways authority desperately need to get their heads together and look into why this happened.

“Exeter was brought to a standstill for a large part of the afternoon, well into the evening. Some people took as long as two hours to go just two miles down the road and we’ve heard of people abandoning their cars to pick children up on foot because the traffic was so bad. This can’t be allowed to happen again.

“This is not an isolated incident, we seem to be suffering perpetual congestion but Devon County Council don’t seem to be going anywhere fast in finding a solution.

“There seems to be no overall strategy for dealing with these incidents and meanwhile public transport schemes like the Marsh Barton railway station and the Alphington Park & Ride – designed to relieve the pressure on our roads - seem to have ground to a halt. What is going on, we desperately need some answers from County!”

Cllr Edwards also questioned the timing of some of the roadworks in the city and whether these could be done in the late evening or evening overnight.