Utility company apologises for traffic disruption on Forlease Road

Residents on Forlease Road have raised complaints about traffic disruption near the Waitrose in Maidenhead this week.

Temporary traffic lights were installed for work undertaken by utility company The Electricity Network Company Ltd (GTC) in connection with a Bellway Homes development.

One resident in the area told the Advertiser: "The traffic around that roundabout is really awful. People can't get to work and are stuck in the car park and they can't move.

"The developers did not tell Waitrose that they were doing this for the following two weeks and a mistake they made has made the situation really ghastly."

A spokesperson for The Electricity Network Company Ltd (GTC) said: "We would like to apologise to the businesses, customers and residents for the traffic disruption being caused by our temporary traffic lights outside Waitrose in Maidenhead.

"These essential works are being undertaken, on behalf of our client to provide a power supply for a new housing development in the local area.

"It is our normal custom and practice for an advanced notification of works to be issued to residents and businesses prior to any works commencing even though this was not a street works permit condition in this instance.

"However, it appears that on this occasion the advance notification of work did not occur, due to a breakdown in communication between the wider project team. We will of course be investigating the reason for this failure.

"Now we are aware of this failure and in order minimise disruption we will be implementing an operative to manually change the lights during peak times to assist with the flow of traffic.

"We would like to re-assure those effected that we are on schedule and aim to have these works completed by Friday 25th August.

"Once again, we apologise for any inconvenience caused by this work.

A Waitrose spokesperson said: "We're open as usual during these temporary roadworks, and have already worked with the Highways Agency to make it easier to get to and from our branch."