THE mad rush to grab a Boxing Day bargain resulted in misery for the residents of Rodbourne on Tuesday.

For months, residents and councillors have been urging Swindon Borough Council to address the traffic problems in the area around the McArthurGlen Designer Outlet.

Week after week, people have been unable to leave their homes in Rodbourne and Churchward due to the sheer scale of the congestion.

Now residents have said that Boxing Day was one of the worst days yet as thousands of people descended on the outlet centre in the hope of bagging a bargain in the sales.

Labour councillor Jim Robbins, who represents the Mannington and Western wards, labelled the council clueless in their failure to address the problem.

He said: “While everyone expects Boxing Day to be busy at the outlet village, it is clear that the traffic issues are causing huge inconvenience for the people of Rodbourne.

“We still haven’t received proper responses to repeated letters from the leader of the council and the cabinet member for highways from November. It is clear that they have no idea what they are doing.

“They should listen to residents, and start with the simple solutions such as cracking down on the people parking on double yellow lines on Rodbourne Road.”

In response, Mary Martin, the cabinet member for communities and place, acknowledged the problems faced by residents and said: “We are working with the Outlet Centre and STEAM on a number of measures such as upgrading the Mannington roundabout, putting double yellow lines on Paddington Drive and upgrading Mead Way to keep the roundabout clear.”

She also hailed the success of the Outlet Centre and said it was hardly surprising it should be busy while the Boxing Day sales were on.

She said: "We are putting a lot of focus on what we can do to improve things, but the truth is we are very lucky to have such a successful Outlet Village."