A Hereford businessman has branded the Highways Agency 'a disgrace' as road works on Belmont roundabout brought traffic to a standstill this week.

Graham Parker, who runs Hinton service station, in Ross Road, was one of many irate people to contact the Hereford Times on Tuesday morning as the city became gridlocked.

At the root of the problem was 'minor patching work' being carried out by the Agency on the A49 at Belmont.

"It's an absolute disgrace," said Mr Parker. "How can such a seemingly minor operation affect so many people and businesses.

"I had to park my car in Edgar Street and walk to Ross Road just to keep an appointment. I wonder how much trade has been lost in the city because of this?

"Why can't they do the work when there's no traffic, on a Sunday or in the early evening? It just doesn't make any sense."

A spokesman for the Highways Agency, Annie Harris, said attempts were made to keep any work to 'off peak' periods.

"Off peak to us means between 9.30am and 3.30pm, avoiding the rush hours at either end of the day," she said.

"The work we were doing, in all honesty, was a bit of patching on a man hole cover and started just after 9.30am.

"A 50-metre stretch of one lane was closed, but we soon realised that the volume of traffic was building rapidly.

"We therefore asked our men to pull out at 1pm and they will finish it overnight later in the week."