Wiltshire Council has apologised to motorists after two sets of roadworks clashed for drivers in Devizes this morning.

Highways cabinet member Bridget Wayman blamed the clash of roadworks in London Road and people diverted by the closure on the A4 at Calne to a computer glitch.

After complaints the council removed the temporary traffic lights in London Road which had caused tailbacks.

Cllr Wayman said: “We apologise for the delays experienced at the junction of London Road and Windsor Drive in Devizes, and the issue created by the additional traffic being diverted from the ongoing closure on the A4 in Calne.

“We always make every effort to ensure that any disruption caused by essential roadworks is kept to a minimum, by taking into consideration all known activities that may affect those works.

“However, in this instance, the issue was caused by a software error in our new system for the management of roadworks, which interacts with the digital mapping system that you see on our website.

“The roadworks management system is a new national system that was launched in July, and we have experienced some issues with the data integration between the two platforms.

“On this occasion the extended works on the A4 in Calne did not show on our digital mapping service, and engineers are working to fix the fault to avoid it happening again.

“As soon as we were made aware of the conflict, the temporary signals for the works on London Road/Windsor Drive were removed to ease the traffic flow, and these works will be now reprogrammed to take place after 17 August.”