RESIDENTS in villages around Oxford say they are suffering from motorists who are avoiding roadworks at the city's biggest roundabout.

On Monday, a contraflow system was put in place on the A40 near the Green Road roundabout in Headington.

The measures, which include manually-operated traffic lights at peak times, will be in place for ten weeks and will cover a 400-metre stretch on either side of the Sandhills junction.

Drivers are seeking out alternative routes through villages including Horspath and Wheatley to avoid the jams.

Carolyn Woodcock, 41, of Manor Farm Road, Horspath, said the road through the village had been jammed during the rush-hours since the roadworks started.

She added that chicanes were creating a dangerous situation for pedestrians and cyclists because commuters were failing to stick to the 30mph speed limit and speeding through.

The mother-of-two said: "It's a real nightmare. Drivers are leaving Oxford's Eastern bypass at the BMW factory and turning right through Horspath and Wheatley before joining the A40/M40 at junction eight.

"In the morning, drivers are going from junction eight and then Wheatley-Horspath-Cowley and at night it's the other way round.

"Some drivers are also going through Garsington and cutting through to Blackbird Leys there are a number of different routes but it is affecting lots of villages." Joan Morters, headteacher of 340-pupil Wheatley CofE Primary School, said the rat-running would coincide with national Walk to School week, which starts on Monday.

She added: "Parents, teachers, and community police officers will walk with the pupils to make sure they are safe.

"The rat-running is present all year round, but it is much more noticeable now the work has started at the roundabout.

"There are narrow paths throughout the village and we need a crossing at the bottom of Ladder Hill and a fixed crossing outside the school in Littleworth Road. The rat-running has really focused our attention on the problems that we already know exist."

David Turner, Liberal Democrat county councillor for Chalgrove division, which includes Garsington, added: "Residents in Garsington say the rat-running has definitely increased.

"It is fortunate that we managed to get speed cushions installed in Wheatley Road and Oxford Road beforehand, which at least slows the traffic." David Robertson, the county council's cabinet member for transport, said: "The last thing we want to do is to send traffic through these villages, but drivers these days have sat-nav machines, or they will use their own initiative.

"Staff will not be working at night during the roadworks, but we will be implementing a series of measures to minimise the delays.

"That includes manning traffic signals at the roadworks and maximising the green light for London and westbound traffic.

"This has already reduced queues at the roundabout and once drivers realise that traffic is flowing reasonably smoothly, it will suck them back in from the rat-runs."

Drivers have already faced several weeks of congestion while one lane of the A40 has been closed.

The £3.75m redesign of the junction dubbed the hamburger will see the construction of a lane through the centre of the roundabout for westbound traffic on the A40. Work is due to finish in December.

The congestion was part of a week of chaos on Oxfordshire's roads, which saw a pedestrian and a car passenger killed in separate collisions.

Neither person has yet been formally identified.

The pedestrian died after a collision with a Ford Escort on the northbound carriageway of the A34 at Chilton at 3.10pm last Friday.

On Monday, a female passenger was killed when the car in which she was travelling was involved in a pile-up involving four vehicles on the westbound carriageway of the A40, near Wheatley, at 9.30am on Monday.