TRAFFIC lights at a busy junction have been fixed, after drivers faced days of confusion as the signals stopped on red.

Motorists faced the choice of waiting endlessly at the traffic lights at Tarpots, in Benfleet, or risking their safety by dashing across the busy London Road junction after the lights stopped working.

The signals have faced intermittent problems since last week, with police reporting a number of calls on the issue.

Essex County Council workmen finally fixed the problem late on Monday evening.

Jason White, owner of shop JD Cycles, at the junction, said: “We were coming up Benfleet High Road from Canvey and the lights were red. We gave it a good while and they weren’t changing.

“I was with someone in the car, who was driving, so I got out and walked, and I think he got round the junction via the Tesco car park.”

Another motorist, who asked not to be named, said: “The lights have been stuck on red for traffic trying to cross London Road four times this week.

“I phoned Essex Police on 101 each time and at first they didn’t appear to knowabout it.

The last time I phoned, on Monday night, they said they had already had several calls about it. Apart from it being a pain, it’s dangerous. Drivers were getting fed up waiting for the lights to change and were chancing it across on the red.

There were several close calls.

“I don’t know if the problem is related to temperature, as it always seems to happen later at night.”

Essex County Council failed to explain why the lights stopped working.

A spokesman said: “We sent a maintenance crew to the London Road traffic lights last night and they were restored to normal working at around 10pm.”