Marlborough at gridlock again…… How long can this go on?

Reports have been coming in that the M4 Westbound is closed first thing this morning and traffic heading towards Swindon, Bristol and the West is being diverted off at Hungerford.

Whilst some will inevitably be diverted down the A4192 between Hungerford towards Junction 15 at Swindon, therefore creating high traffic flows through the villages of Chilton Foliat, Aldbourne and Liddington, much traffic will come through Marlborough as the A4 is regarded as a major road, formerly the main east-west Trunk route between London and the west.

This additional traffic, added to the chaos that Marlborough has been experiencing (again) in the past few days due to the gas main works on Salisbury Road, which clogged up much of the town last week, means that Marlborough could face traffic gridlock to start the week.

The M4 closure is due to a serious accident involving an HGV lorry and a coach between Junctions 14 and 15 – Hungerford and Swindon. It happened earlier this morning, at around 4:25am and Thames Valley Police are advising “……motorists to avoid the area at this time, as the road is likely to be closed for some time while officers conduct investigations at the scene.”

There has been much clamour in Marlborough over the past year from residents who are fed up with what they face on a daily / weekly basis, even attempting the journey to Tesco on the Business Park can be fraught with difficulty (assuming you don’t live in Marleberg Grange).

The constant stream of roadworks is bad, ridiculously so, but takes just one extra incident, such as happened this morning with the M4 closure to tip ‘hold-ups’ into ‘gridlock.’ Wiltshire Council, when challenged refer anyone to the one.network website where all current and future roadworks are listed. Sure, this can help, it can help when planning for what should be a short journey, but it isn’t reliable (times/dates of events frequently differ from what is shown), and it gives Wiltshire Council the opportunity to transfer the responsibility elsewhere, when it is their responsibility to co-ordinate such events, which seems not to happen.