WHEN is someone with an ounce of common sense going to take control of Worthing's number-one industry – the creation of roadworks?
Monday, April 6, saw Worthing's worst ever traffic jam – and that's saying something – all caused by two sets of temporary traffic lights and a few men digging a hole in High Street.
The dreaded lights blocked progress in High Street, which in turn caused a back-up of traffic the length of Chatsworth Road.
Beyond there, Chapel Road was reduced to the state of a car park, with another set of temporary lights because of the continued work there.
Result: the town centre ground to a virtual halt early in the morning and stayed at a halt until gone 6pm.
As soon as Chatsworth Road was blocked with stationary traffic, it was the turn of Chapel Road to be completely filled, with queues going both ways.
Packs of buses were held-up and drivers arrived late with tales of taking 45 minutes to travel a few hundred yards.
No doubt these roadworks were necessary.
You can't delay dealing with a gas or water leak just because it would hold up traffic.
But there should be someone there to oversee such works and to put-up traffic diversions or controls to keep vehicles moving.
The main problem was at the junction with High Street and Chatsworth Road.
Immediately the lights went from red to green in favour of north-moving traffic, there was a dash to get through before they changed again.
Motorists waiting "patiently" in Chatsworth Road didn't stand a chance, because no-one was letting anyone out of the side road.
With people also "trapped" in the exit lane from the nearby multi-storey car park, no-one seemed in the mood to operate any kind of informal "go in turn" system.
Worthing has had more than its fair share of roadworks and people have had their fill of them.
It's about time work was done at night and at weekends.
When temporary lights cause serious problems then the answer must be 24-hour working.
The problem with Monday was that no-one introduced any element of joined-up planning into the process.
Isn't that what we pay them to do?
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