RESIDENTS on a Poole estate are claiming their lives are being made a misery by a road improvement scheme aimed at cutting congestion on one of the borough's busiest routes.

People living in the Alderney area are finding it a nightmare trying to pull out of the estate from Belben Road on to Ringwood Road, after traffic lights at the Mountbatten Arms roundabout caused huge delays.

Traffic bosses are now looking at the scheme again and are considering putting in a yellow box junction to ease the congestion.

Carol Amey, 31, who lives in Farwell Road, said: "It's an absolute nightmare. Where we come out there's a 'keep clear' sign but people ignore it and there are tailbacks from the Mountbatten Arms roundabout right up Ringwood Road, all the way down the dual carriageway to Tower Park.

"We think it's the worst thing that they've ever done."

Alderney Ward councillor Tony Trent said he had received a number of complaints from local residents and that he had raised the issue with Borough of Poole Council.

He added: "They've got a traffic light which, if a car waits for more than a certain period to get out, it puts the nearby pedestrian crossing on a red and allows them to get out. But they've changed the period of time from 40 seconds to 60 seconds so that's an issue.

"There's so many signs telling you which lane to get into, you're concentrating on being in the right lane so you don't spot the 'keep clear' in the road."

Steve Tite, highways manager at Borough of Poole, said: "We have had problems with the newly installed signals at the Mountbatten Arms over recent weeks and this has had a knock-on effect creating problems for Belben Road traffic.

"These signal problems have since been resolved so hopefully traffic should be flowing more freely and things should be getting back to normal."

He added that motorists were still experiencing some problems by those who failed to observe the 'keep clear' markings and that they were now considering a yellow box junction.

First published: Sept 6