Long delays as V Festival gets underway

Thousands of music fans faced long delays on the roads this morning as the V Festival got underway at Weston Park, on the Shropshire border.

On the M54 westbound, the seven mile stretch between J2 and J3 for Weston Park was at a standstill, with drivers facing delays of more than an hour.

And traffic was prevented from joining the M6 south at J13 (Stafford South) because of the heavy traffic already on the motorway heading for J12 and Weston Park.

Drivers were delayed further by an accident on the A5 between the park and the A449 island involving two cars.

The M6 south was also slow at junction 12.

To try to keep traffic moving, the A41 was running north only to cope with the volume of traffic expected throughout the day.

The M54 was running normally again as of 1130am.

The festival is being headlined by chart toppers The Stone Roses, Killers, Tom Jones and Snow Patrol, with dozens of other acts lined up to perform during the weekend.

Indie girls and rockers are in for a soaking, with the Met Office predicting a wet weekend.

Don't miss tonight's four-page V Festival special in The Ticket.