COUNCIL chiefs have rejected calls for a roundabout at a notorious Pershore junction.

A petition was handed in by residents on September 14, who were fed up of traffic queues and safety concerns at the Station Road and Wyre Road junction.

The current situation sees temporary traffic lights at the new crossroads and council chiefs have insisted that these will become permanent and that no roundabout will be introduced.

Cllr Ken Pollock, cabinet member with responsibility for economy and infrastructure, said: "We understand the frustrations of residents who have to use that stretch of road and find themselves sat in traffic waiting for the lights to change. This was made clear in the recent petition.

"However, the council considers that a four-way crossroad operation at Station Road/Wyre Road without temporary lights would be an unacceptable highway safety issue.

"This is due to the design deficiencies of the current layout and the unsuitability of this form of junction to cater for the volumes of traffic negotiating the junction, especially at peak times.

"Therefore, although the council recognises the inconvenience the temporary traffic lights impose on the users of the road, it can't support the removal of the temporary traffic signals even for an experimental period as this would create a highway safety danger.

"A standard sized roundabout is unsuitable as it would require land outside of the Council's control to make it possible and would be significantly more expensive to implement."

The temporary lights have been in place since the developer, Persimmon Homes, created a new access road onto the new Pardoe Road estate off the junction.

As part of the planning approval process, the developer is required to install permanent traffic lights to replace the temporary ones.

Hundreds of people joined a pressure group on Facebook calling for a roundabout and at a Worcestershire County Council meeting in September a petition was officially handed in to the authority.

Residents flooded the Facebook group with comments saying the crossroads is an accident waiting to happen, that the situation gets worse as more of the new properties become occupied and add to the traffic, and that motorists have reported being stuck on Station Road for more than 30 minutes at times.

Gaynor Amphlett, who created the group said: "I am appalled that the attitude of the county council is so utterly dismissive of all the problems my pressure group has exposed.

"The multiple failures of Wychavon Planning in rubber stamping persimmons planning application without properly investigating the impact on traffic in this area is shocking.

"They have presided over Persimmon not carrying out their agreed planning permissions and we know now that the entrance to the new estate is neither in the right place or compliant in design.

"County highways have known about the problems at this junction for a very long time and have done nothing to investigate until forced to by my group and the expressed wish of Pershore town council against a light's scheme.

"The county highways have rejected at least two applications from persimmon for the light's installation because they weren't up to scratch. What are they going to do to make sure any new design will be fit for purpose.

"The abject failure of the parties to work together constructively has led to the ridiculous problems faced over the last 18 months or so.

"There has been an effect on Pershores economy as we have had many comments from people who used to shop here who no longer do because of the frustration trying to get in and out of pershore.

"The road from Pinvin crossroads down to Worcester road in Pershore will become the Blackpool of the Midlands with all the extra traffic lights that are planned for Station Road.

"Pershore people feel extremely let down by our local county councillor who chose not to listen seriously to us and failed in every respect to properly engage with us and the town council on an issue that brought together over 1100 people on FB, 856 e petition signatures, 260 paper petition signatures and around 85 protesters at the on site protest.

"I simply ask what kind of representation is that?

"Pershore now has to face the issue of traffic lights forever, this debacle will live in our memories for a very long time."