Wiltshire Council highways bosses say the temporary traffic lights put up without their knowledge in Devizes town centre will be removed this morning.

Coun Philip Whitehead the cabinet member for highways said: "These lights were put up by BT without telling us. A team is on the way to Devizes to take them down but it got caught up in the traffic.

"It is a shame we can't use blue lights to get quickly to the scene to solve the problem that is causing the traffic congestion."

He said BT had been contacted by the council about defective manhole covers but instead of booking in the remedial work with Wiltshire Council had gone ahead and put up the lights without warning.

It meant that motorists hoping for an easy journey to work thanks to half term school holidays were left tearing their hair out in Devizes this morning when three-way traffic lights brought chaos to the town centre.

Lights in Northgate Street and Station Road appeared without warning on Monday evening and came into force today leaving drivers facing a 30 minute wait to get through the town.

Traffic in all directions came to a standstill and people took to social media to vent their anger about the unexplained traffic lights. One said it had put a 49 bus which goes from Trowbridge to Swindon, via Devizes, 50 minutes behind schedule.

The Wiltshire Council roadwork website had no mention of the traffic lights. It is not yet known how long the roadworks will last.

A spokesman for Wiltshire Council said it had not been informed about the roadworks and temporary lights but it was believed the work was being done by BT. A Wiltshire Council employee dispatched to check out what is happening is stuck in traffic caused by the work.