ANGRY motorists in Exminster are up in arms at roadworks which are causing delays of up to an hour.

Engineers working for National Grid are working on a £150,000 upgrade of a substation and installing new underground cables.

But traffic control lights have left drivers facing long queues and taking, in some cases, up to an hour just to get out of the village.

County councillor Alan Connett raised the issue at a meeting of the council which he said was to ‘highlight issues with utility firms treating our roads like it was their works compound’.

He said: ‘It’s ridiculous and National Grid must know what’s happening, yet appear to be doing nothing.

‘I fully understand the anger of residents.

‘We all understand utilities need to do their work but it does seem National Grid is taking a massive liberty at Exminster.’

A Devon County highways enforcement officer was sent to the scene in Sannerville Way who reported traffic was slowly freely at the time of his visit.

But there had been issues with the lights that morning and a battery had to be replaced which resulted in the particular chaos one morning.

Cllr Connett added: ‘The control room is keeping a mindful eye on this location and contacting various members of the team for urgent decisions to be met.’

But residents reported that on one occasion during morning and afternoon rush hour, there was no one on site.

A spokesman for National Grid Electricity Distribution said: ‘We are carrying out a £150,000 upgrade of a substation in Exminster and installing a stretch of new underground cables to ensure resilience of supplies for customers.

‘Laying 500 metres of new cables has required staged roadworks which have been carefully planned and organised with the local highways authority.

‘Once cables have been installed, road resurfacing has been carried out and the curing of the new surface can take up to 24 hours before vehicles can use it.

‘We are now working on the final 200 metres of the project, with two-way lights in operation.

‘We understand it can be frustrating for people’s journeys to be delayed and apologise for the inconvenience. We aim to complete this important upgrade work by September 14.’

Residents say it has been taking them an extra hour on their commute but complain there is no one actually working on site.

One said: ‘I speak for hundreds of frustrated villagers as it took me one hour and 15 minutes to get to work, 45 minutes of which is getting out of our village.

‘It is completely unacceptable.’

The lights were turned off completely over one weekend and now villagers are asking why the same cannot be done at peak times of traffic.

They have also complained that at the same peak times, there is no one actually working on the site. It has been reported school buses have also been arriving late as have passenger buses which have been running to and from Dawlish about 20 minutes late.

Tailbacks are being described as huge through the rest of the village as traffic waits to get through the lights.