Tesco Extra traffic bumper to bumper

CARS queued bumper to bumper along Huddersfield Road as shoppers eager to have a glimpse of the giant new Tesco Extra store took to the streets in their masses yesterday.

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A top-level investigation has been launched into traffic chaos and delays near the new Tesco store in Huddersfield Road.

The store, the largest in the North-West, opened for business on Monday and irate commuters claim traffic snarl-ups are causing frustrating delays to journeys in and out of the town centre.

Now, Oldham Council and Greater Manchester Urban Traffic Control Unit (UTC) are working together to monitor traffic flows and find ways of easing the jams.

Motorists say the road is log-jammed from Mumps Bridge to the junction of Ripponden Road at key rush-hour and school run times.

Councillor Brian Lord, is demanding action to sort the snarl-ups. He said: “There is an urgent need to look at the effect of the Tesco lights on the traffic streams through the town.

“Many people have started to use Lees Road to get from Saddleworth to Oldham, causing even more hold ups. It is taking me three times as long to get home than usual.

“For some reason, people are leaving the bypass in droves and heading on to the road leading to Sainsbury’s store. I have never experienced so many people doing this before.

“There have been increasing numbers coming off the bypass and down on to Waterloo Street over recent weeks.

“I suspect that this is because the traffic lights at Tesco’s have backed up traffic through Mumps island and on the bypass.”

He says that earlier in the week he was caught in a jam just off King Street roundabout and crawled to the Sainsbury’s island.

“The problem was that cars coming off the bypass were blocking the island so traffic wishing to turn right on to the bypass couldn’t get on to the island. Once vehicles reach Mumps island they face stationary traffic stopping vehicles heading to town centre entering it.”

Councillor Lord said on one journey it took three changes of traffic lights to get off the island at Bottom o’th’Moor and several more changes to travel across Cross Street.

Bob Marshall an Oldham businessman who travels from Springhead by car to the town centre every day, said: “It has been is total chaos on Huddersfield Road at rush hour.

“Problems are made worse by traffic coming out of Tesco’s car park trying to get back on to the main road.”

Cabinet member for environment and infrastructure, Councillor Mark Alcock, said: “The new Tesco store is a fantastic development.

“However it is well-known and accepted nationally that opening such a large scale development anywhere can have an effect on local traffic flow.

“I can assure all road users council traffic engineers and experts from the UTC will be monitoring the situation closely.”