MOTORISTS travelling to the heart of the Lake District face tortuous tailbacks along a main arterial route if a controversial set of traffic lights is installed, warn business leaders and residents.

Plans to install traffic lights along the A591 in Windermere have provoked a backlash with townsfolk envisaging traffic jams from Ambleside through to Ings and Staveley, and gridlock in Windermere, reports Andrew Daniels.

Under the Cumbria County Council plans, Elleray Road would become one-way with traffic lights at its junction with the A591 - only allowing vehicles to leave Windermere, and effectively blocking off one entrance to the town.

Traffic entering Windermere would have to use Victoria Street, which would have a narrower entry point to slow vehicles down.

Town centre manager Paul Holdsworth said there was general opposition to traffic lights and that people preferred a roundabout at the A591/Victoria Street junction - a move said to be impossible by CCC, the highway authority.

Chairman of the Windermere and Bowness Chamber of Trade Barry Butler, who had not been aware of the traffic lights plan, said the scheme would be bad for Windermere.

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