As reported in The Cornishman/West Briton http://www.cornishman.co.uk/H-yle-lot-confusion-pound-200-000-road-paint...

Hayle drivers left baffled after £200,000 road 'paint job'

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RESIDENTS in Hayle have been left scratching their heads after £200,000 worth of improvement works to a main junction close to the town appears to have achieved very little.

Work has been carried out on the A30 Loggans Moor roundabout with the aim of easing congestion.

However five weeks on and several local residents have said it appears that the work seems to have been little more than a paint job.

Criticism

White lines have been painted to create lane definition and place names written inside the lanes. But a major criticism is that the road marking for Hayle has been shortened to read 'H'YLE'.

The Highways Agency, responsible for the work, says the road has been widened at the A30 westbound approach providing two new defined lanes.

It also says two new exit lanes have been created from the A30 eastbound as well as additional signage along the route.

Angarrack resident and Cornwall councillor, Derek Elliot, said the new paint job had led to confusion for drivers.

"I think it's an absolute waste of time. The way they have directed traffic from Angarrack to Hayle in the right hand lane is confusing. There was nearly an accident. The money that has been spent on this ... and I've yet to come across a single person who says it's an improvement.

"You don't have a chance to read the road markings anyway. If people start looking at the road instead of the cars they'll be going even slower."

Hayle town councillor Clive Pilkinghorne raised objections to the H'YLE abbreviation saying it seemed "ridiculous" that both it and HAYLE were five symbols long, yet the abbreviation was used.

With the busiest weeks of the summer period in sight, thousands of visitors will travel through the Loggans Moor junction to get to destinations is west Cornwall.

A spokesman for the Highways Agency said the improvement work was designed to ease congestion and had been modelled on similar schemes.

He said: "All this should slow down the junction by increasing its capacity. People will have quite a bit of time to work out which lane they should be in. It is a scheme that has been used in a lot of other areas."

The spokesman said the costing might seem high but it was considered small for a road improvement scheme. "It includes design work, possibly signage and the work itself which includes road closure. It costs a lot to work at night and physically close the road."