TRANSPORT bosses have insisted that they did all they could to prevent traffic delays caused by gas mains works.

The £2.5m project by Southern Gas Networks (SGN) to install new pipes in Banbury Road, Oxford, began on September 22 and caused long tailbacks around the junction with Marston Ferry Road.

But the county council’s cabinet member for transport, Rodney Rose, said some disruption was “inevitable” due to the size and complexity of the project.

He added: “I am confident that the county’s streetworks team has worked very closely and effectively with SGN and used all its powers to minimise the overall impact of this necessary work.

“SGN also worked closely with the county’s traffic signals team at the planning stage and even carried out a trial run of the traffic management for the works at this junction.

“This simulation exercise did not produce any unexpectedly high congestion and delay results.”

However, Summertown county councillor Jean Fooks said she had been inundated with calls and emails from residents complaining about the works.

Mrs Fooks, a governor at Cherwell School, in Marston Ferry Road, said: “They were ghastly.

“There was excessive disruption. It doubled the number of children late for school at Cherwell and I know children were also turning up late at Headington School.

“The works should have been done in the summer holidays if they could have been, and there should have been more prominent diversion signs at the top of Banbury Road to send people down Woodstock Road and avoid the delays.”

Motorist Adriana Matos, from Cavendish Road, Oxford, agreed. She said: “The traffic was a nightmare. Banbury Road did not move during the rush hour, leaving Summertown gridlocked and adding half an hour to my journey to work. This work should have taken place during the school holidays. Failing that, work should have gone on overnight.”

The works were completed two weeks earlier than expected on October 5.

After complaints, the phasing of temporary traffic lights for the works was changed and Moreton Road closed to try to reduce delays.

Mr Rose said the project could not have been completed in the summer as other works were taking place in Park Town, St Giles and in Woodstock Road, which would have put an additional burden on the highways network.

SGN spokesman Duncan MacDonald said: “The programme for this essential project was agreed with the local council after careful consideration of various options.

“SGN staff worked 13 hours a day, seven days a week, to ensure that the project was completed in as safe and timely a manner as possible and advance warning signs were positioned at the approaches to all of the junctions.

“While it is inevitable that there was going to be some congestion at peak times, every possible step was taken to minimise its effect.”