Traffic in Rodbourne, particularly in Rodbourne Road, is returning to its awful pre-pandemic levels.

That’s what councillors from Mannington and Western told highways bosses at Swindon Borough Council.

Mannington & Western councillors Jim Robbins and Kevin Small sit on the local authority’s Scrutiny Committee - Coun Small is the chairman – and they gave the council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for strategic infrastructure and transport a grilling as he presented his annual report.

Coun Small said: “As the person in the room who lives in Rodbourne, I probably understand it better than anyone here.

“The problem is the traffic on Great Western Way and getting out of Rodbourne Road.”

The councillors said the issues getting down Rodbourne Road and out on to Great Western Way via Bruce Street Bridges was getting worse, with queues building up earlier and earlier.

Coun Robbins said: “It’s not just around 5pm, the queueing starts at 3pm and last for hours.”

He said after the meeting that it stretched back from the exit on to the roundabouts to the Dolphin pub.

Coun Small said: “It has got worse. It’s back to being as bad as it was two or three years ago.”

Coun Sumner pointed out that the portfolio for management of existing highways was held by his cabinet colleague Kevin Parry but said there is funding for an assessment of the traffic on Great Western Way to see if anything should, and can, be done about it.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic and its lockdowns, traffic in Rodbourne Road and the surrounding area was a hot topic.

Many people complained that traffic at weekends and through December was particularly bad, with cars queuing to get in the Designer Outlet Village causing tailbacks elsewhere in the area.

But that was far from the only problem, with many complaining that traffic at the start and end of the day most days was, in effect, keeping them trapped in their homes.

At a meeting in November 2018 organised about the issue by Coun Small, attended by Coun Sumner and council leader David Renard residents told stories of never being visited by children or grandchildren because they could not get to their street through the traffic, and if they did they could not park.

One said: “I leave the house to do my shopping at 7.30am on a Saturday, because if I go later, I just can’t get back.”

Several said that commuter traffic in the evenings was causing them just as much difficulty as the shoppers visiting the Designer Outlet at weekends.

One said: “It’s every night. It’s a complete nightmare.”