COUNCIL leaders say they will explore the possibility of removing traffic lights to ease congestion in Hereford.

Herefordshire Council infrastructure and transport chief John Harrington says they may run trials in which they switch off the lights at the Asda and Tesco roundabouts.

Councillor Harrington said he has approached Highways England, who are responsible for the A49, and says they are up for a discussions on issues affecting the road.

“One of the things we can do to ease congestion is take traffic lights out in Herefordshire,” he said.

“It’s potentially a simple thing to do and the political will is there.

RELATED NEWS: Road with 30ft crack to stay shut until next month

“I’ve had a recent exploratory discussion with a senior Highways England official and said I wanted to talk about traffic light removal. He asked when did I want to have the conversation. We can start as early as September.”

Coun Harrington said one of the arguments used against the new administration is that they cannot do anything on the A49 until it is detrunked as it is the remit of Highways England.

“I’m not saying they are going to give us permission but the noises coming back from them is that they are more than happy to discuss it,” he said.

“We might have a situation within 12 to 18 months where we have no traffic lights on the major junctions in Hereford.

“If that worked well we might extend that to those we control as an authority.”

Coun Harrington said having traffic lights means you have an artificial barrier to the movement of traffic.

“You’ve got to think of why those are being used.

“In a low-speed inner city area, I don’t think safety is the major consideration.”

He said the traffic movements along the A49 through Hereford have remained roughly the same over the last 10 years.

“It’s still around 48,000 vehicles crossing the river a day.

“Why are we suddenly getting more and more congestion?

“We might surmise that one of those reasons is the increase in traffic lights.”

Coun Harrington said the council would look at schemes in Poynton and Portishead where congestion has been eased by removing lights.

If allowed, he said they would do microsimulations before running a live trial for a few weeks before making a decision.