COUNCIL bosses have been slammed over claims they are failing to acknowledge the misery that traffic chaos is causing for residents in Rodbourne.

In recent weeks, it has become routine to see queues of bumper to bumper traffic barely crawling through the area as cars queueing for the Designer Outlet struggle to cram their way into the car parks.

Residents have reported feeling unable to leave their homes for fear that they will just be stranded in gridlocked streets, with thousands of eager shoppers descending on the area with present lists in hand.

The increase in traffic is not an uncommon sight at this time of year. With Christmas edging ever-closer, record numbers of visiting are hitting the shops.

But for councillors Jim Robbins, Steph Exell and Kevin Small — the Labour trio that represents the Mannington and Western ward — the council’s perceived failure to plan for the well-anticipated Christmas increase represents a failure of management.

In an open letter addressed to council leader David Renard and the cabinet member for communities, Mary Martin, Councillors Robbins, Exell and Small accused the pair of hiding from residents.

The letter reads: “As we have had no response to a message sent to the cabinet member for highways, Mary Martin, on November 6 and no response to a further message sent to the council leader, David Renard, and Coun Martin on November 15, we are taking the unusual step of trying to reach out to them via your pages. Our message to them is as follows:

"We are pleased the outlet village is welcoming many visitors to the town and trading well, but we are calling for immediate action to ease the traffic issues and stop Rodbourne residents from feeling trapped in their own homes.

“We aren’t expecting you to magically solve the issue straightaway, but we are concerned and disappointed that you won’t even acknowledge the frustration that residents feel. Rodbourne residents have already had to live through the horrific overruns of the Bruce Street Bridges roundabout work and had to wait a further year before the highways team finally changed the priorities to ease traffic on Rodbourne Road.

“Hiding away in the council offices and ignoring the residents of the Rodbourne again suggests that yours is an administration that has run out of ideas as well as courage.

“We note that many of your councillors have been publicly welcoming the outline planning that has been granted to the long-awaited ‘snow dome’, but none have explained how the area — already struggling under the current rates of traffic — will cope with the increased number of journeys. We are keen to see the ‘snow dome’ finally delivered after years of waiting, but are keen to ensure that the local infrastructure can cope.

“We want to have a proper response from you by the end of the week, apologising to residents for not responding to them as soon as we raised the issue with you, and a detailed plan for how you will be tackling the traffic congestion this weekend and all of the weekends up to Christmas.

“If you can’t do this, then we feel it is time that you consider your positions of leadership in the town.”

But Coun Martin, whose communities portfolio includes responsibility for highways, pulled no punches in hitting back at claims that she was failing to acknowledge the issue.

“As a resident of West Swindon who is affected by the traffic issues, I share the inconvenience experienced by many residents,” she said.

“However, I make no apology for the fact that the Designer Outlet and Steam are huge successes providing jobs and income."

“Any other town having four million visitors a year would hail this as a sign of success. The fact is that any major town or city with destinations like these will be facing extremely high volumes of traffic for the next few weeks.

“We are already taking a number of measured responses. We are investing £2.5m to improve the Mead Way corridor to help residents continue moving and we are encouraging people to come to Swindon by train, taking advantage of Network’s Rail and GWR’s billion pound plus investment in new trains and infrastructure.

“We are encouraging local residents to use buses rather than their cars and will soon be starting work to improve the traffic flow at the Mannington Roundabout. Work is well under way to increase capacity at junction 16 of the M4 and we are installing yellow lines on Paddington Drive to prevent the lorry parking that adds to the congestion.

“The Designer Outlet will deploy staff to marshal vehicles to allow the service road to be used to relieve congestion at peak times and, in addition, they are looking at some longer-term plans for expansion where accessibility and car parking will be key considerations.

“Swindon is not only a victim of success but also a prisoner of history. There are no quick or affordable ways of improving the road network wholesale because of the railways. That is simply a fact.

“There is no single, simple, shortcut to resolve this. Officers and I will continue to work with the designer outlet and residents to seek ways to mitigate the traffic issues.”