Drivers stuck at Shrewsbury services for 'up to an hour' in bank holiday traffic trouble

The A5 near Shrewsbury, at the Dobbies roundabout with the A49 and A5112, has seen queues and delays for westbound traffic heading from the Emstrey island from this morning.

Some motorists were stranded at the services off the Dobbies island, trying to get out for up to an hour.

One driver, who had been at the Dobbies Cafe to meet family earlier today, said they had faced a 30-minute wait to even get out of their parking space as cars struggled to join the A5 from the services.

Clive Whittall, from Worthen, explained that it had taken around an hour to get back onto the A5, as he questioned whether there has been an issue with the phasing of the lights on the roundabout.

Mr Whittall said the busy state of the road was understandable given the bank holiday weekend, but said he was baffled as to why cars were facing such extreme delays in getting back onto the A5 from the services junction.

He said: "The thing is we obviously know it is a bank holiday and the traffic will be congested but there's something going seriously wrong here – whether it is the traffic light phasing or not I do not know."

Mr Whittall said the situation had ended up in logjam in the garden centre car park with people continuing to arrive at the centre, but others unable to get out.

He said: "We got to the point where people were trying to get in but no-one could get out."

The AA highlighted delays in the areas from around 10am today, describing: "Severe delays of ten minutes and delays easing on A5 westbound between A5 and A49 Hereford Road (Dobbies island). Average speed [is] 10mph."