MOTORISTS have been forced to endure more delays with ongoing issues at the traffic lights at Penn Inn.

Newton Abbot’s busiest traffic hub was thrown into chaos for the second week running with drivers heading in from Milber, Buckland, Aller and from Torquay held up, in some cases, for more than an hour.

The area is known as one of the region’s worst traffic blackspots.

Four BT engineers were on site on Tuesday and Wednesday trying to repair the fault but an update on the South Devon Link Road website said it was unknown how long it would take to fix the problem.

However, Devon County Council reported that it was expected to be repaired by yesterday lunchtime.

A spokesman said: ‘We are sorry, we know it’s really frustrating.’

Parents in Buckland were reporting taking between one-and-a-half hours and two hours getting children to school.

It was said Newton Abbot College experienced numerous students being late due to the hold-ups.

Buckland residents have taken to social media to complain and town councillor Chris Coyle-Moore, who lives in Queensway, has appealed to Devon County Council leader Cllr John Hart to look at the problems.

As well as contending with the latest signalling faults, residents have a daily battle getting out of Queensway on to Shaldon Road due to the lack of off-street parking, leaving effectively a single carriageway.

Cllr Coyle-Moore explained: ‘The failure of the signals this week and last and the ensuing chaos has only highlighted the problem here and reignited local anger.’

Last week’s problems were caused when a BT cable, used to control the lights according to traffic flows, was severed by contractors working on the link road.

While that problem was repaired after several days, by Monday morning another fault had occurred on the same cable.

A spokesman for Devon County Council said although the problem this week is similar in that it involves the communications cable and affected traffic the same way, it was not the same.

He said: ‘Last week the cable had been accidentally severed by contractors and BT engineers fixed it on Wednesday but a similar fault has since occurred on the same cable.

‘The lights are working but they are not automatically adjusting themselves to optimise traffic flow, which is causing tailbacks at peak times.’

Devon County Council and BT engineers were getting the problem fixed.

The spokesman added: ‘We’re very sorry. This is a different fault to last week.

‘We and BT have been trying to resolve it as quickly as possible.

‘It is a busy junction, especially at peak times and we know the delays are really frustrating.’

County and district councillor Gordon Hook said he had again been ‘inundated’ with complaints from residents.

He said: ‘This is a catastrophe, as bad as ever. Yet again, the residents of Milber, Buckland and Aller are significantly inconvenienced and their lives turned upside down by the construction of the South Devon link road without, as far as I am aware of, any word of apology or any indication of compensation to the community.

‘I very much regret this sad saga continues.

‘Getting the responsible agencies to take responsibility is not straightforward as it strikes me none of them seem prepared to put their hand up and accept responsibility.’

Cllr Hook added that he was seeking legal advice on any compensation which may be payable to residents.

The situation at Queensway is an ongoing problem which Cllr Coyle-Moore says will get worse with approval for 130 homes at the end of Windsor Avenue.

He is calling for Section 106 money from the new homes to be used to provide off-road parking and safety improvements to Queensway.

He explained: ‘On-street parking in Queensway is causing traffic to back up several hundred metres along Queensway and tributary roads such as Sandringham Crescent.

‘Drivers are driving on the wrong side of the road along Buckland Brake and Queensway to access the slip road outside the shops near the junction via Penn Inn Close to try to jump the queue.

‘I have previously asked for bollards to be placed at the Queensway access slip road to prevent this dangerous practice.’

Last year, he presented a petition to Devon County Council calling for improvements.