A SUPERMARKET’S plan for a mini-roundabout onto a busy town centre road has come under fire from councillors.

Tesco wants to put the roundabout at its Lydney High Street entrance, but the town council has opposed the plan, claiming it would only make the traffic situation worse.

The supermarket claims that customers are often delayed exiting the car park onto the busy road, and shoppers visiting Tesco are held up finding a parking space.

Its application to Forest of Dean planners says: “The car park, which is accessed via a priority junction on the High Street, experiences queues on the access road that block back from the High Street junction, leading to circulation problems and delays in accessing parking spaces.

“This queuing is caused by the inability of exiting store traffic to turn onto the High Street as it is delayed by slow moving traffic on the High Street and by queuing traffic waiting to turn right into the car park access.”

It adds: “A queue was present at the junction of the High Street and Church Road to the west of the site at the time of the site review, which appeared to be due to the combination of right turning traffic from the High Street and traffic from the side road; all of which served to delay traffic towards the centre of Lydney.

“The effect of the proposal would introduce a change in priority at the junction that would help to alleviate the onsite queuing that takes place which is impacting on the operation of the car park and store access.”

But Lydney town councillors at June 12’s planning and highway committee meeting were not convinced by the mini-roundabout bid, claiming “the proposal would exacerbate the problems already experienced with the flow of traffic at peak times”.

They said it would work against the proposed £1m-plus investment in road improvements planned in 2018/2019 for nearby Bream Junction, causing “greater congestion in High Street, Bream Road and Hill Street”.

Councillors added that it “would have a detrimental effect on the Lydney Air Quality Management Plan” and voted to recommend rejection of the plan.