SWINDON Council has admitted that an error has led to traffic problems along one of the main routes into town.

Motorists say the changes on Cricklade Road, near the Moonrakers double roundabout, have caused confusion and are potentially dangerous.

The council wanted to shorten a bus lane approaching the roundabout so that cars could use both lanes to alleviate congestion.

The changes were made, but it was then discovered that the council failed to go through the proper legal process.

The road markings have been changed back to their original while council officers go back out to public consultation and get the changes signed off properly.

Motorist Dawn Dimmer, of St Andrew’s Ridge, uses the road every day to get to work and says people are completely confused.

“There is still a sign up saying the bus lane ends and everybody should use all lanes,” said the 48-year-old.

“But they have taken off the paint on the road so there is complete confusion over who has to give way to who at the mini roundabout.

“You have both lanes of traffic with people who don’t know what they’re meant to be doing.

“It just looks like the council has done a half job.”

Mrs Dimmer says the changes are in fact adding to congestion and could even make the junction dangerous.

“It’s chaos every day – the traffic backs up way past the BP garage.

“It could be dangerous because it causes confusion because of the different information drivers are given.”

A spokesman for the council said: “The decision to shorten the bus lane so that it ended further from the junction was made in an effort to improve traffic flow in the immediate run-up to the roundabout.

“To do this legally we have to make a Traffic Regulation Order, and consult about the changes before we make them. The intention was to include the Cricklade Road bus lane modifications as part of the wider consultations we were doing last year about allowing taxis to use bus lanes.

“Unfortunately, the proposed Cricklade Road changes were missed off, which meant that the work eventually went ahead without the bus companies and others having a chance to comment. This was down to simple human error and we are sorry it happened.

“We’re grateful that Mrs Dimmer has brought this to our attention, and we will now carry out the legally-required consultation of 21 days, which will begin next week, and her comments will be taken into account.

“We agree that the road markings aren’t as clear as they should be at the moment, but once we realised our error it made no sense to spend money continuing with the work as things might now change in the light of any comments we receive.”