Swindon Borough Council has handed Thames Water a fixed penalty notice after issues with temporary traffic lights in the town.

The water provider has been performing works on Wootton Bassett Road consisting of a boundary box replacement.

This connects private pipework to Thames Water’s network and is expected to be completed by Thursday.

Two-way traffic lights have been in place since Tuesday, June 13 due to the location of the box but these signals should have been manually controlled.

This would be to ensure a steady flow of traffic and to minimise delays but this was not done.

Swindon Advertiser: Thames Water have been handed a fixed penalty notice by Swindon Borough Council.Thames Water have been handed a fixed penalty notice by Swindon Borough Council. (Image: Dave Cox)

The fine was set at £120, which will be reduced to £80 if paid within 28 days.

The amount is set by the Department for Transport, SBC told the Adver.

Councillor Chris Watts, Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for the Environment and Transport, said: “I’m pleased our team has issued a fixed penalty notice to the contractor that was carrying out work at Kingshill.

“Moving forward we want to create a protocol, working with contractors, to critically examine and challenge when they should use temporary traffic lights, or deploy traffic management, when no work is being carried out.

“This body of work will take some time but, in the meantime, we will continue to take action where permit breaches take place as we work to deliver on our pledge to keep Swindon moving.”

Traffic did start to build with the temporary lights in place as long queues of vehicles could be seen on the afternoon of Tuesday, June 13, backing up the busy street.

Swindon Advertiser: A temporary traffic light system has been put in place as repair works are enacted.

The Adver approached Thames Water for comment on the matter.

A Thames Water spokesperson said: "We received a fixed penalty notice from Swindon Borough Council, following necessary works to our pipework along Wootton Bassett Road on Tuesday 13 June. The fixed penalty notice is currently being assessed by our teams.

"We will always look to take a collaborative approach with the local authority to planned improvement and urgent repair work, to minimise disruption to residents, businesses and motorists and we are sorry for any delays during this time."

New council leader Jim Robbins was pleased with the progress in resolving the traffic issue, taking to Twitter to commend his colleague.

“Really pleased with the progress that Chris Watts is making to get Swindon moving as the new Cabinet member responsible,” he said.

“After some poor traffic management by contractors on Kingshill, a fixed penalty notice has been issued to them.”