A COUNCILLOR says one of Southend’s busiest junctions - which underwent a £7million improvement - was better before the cash was spent.

Southend Council removed the roundabout outside Southend Victoria train station and replaced it with a T-junction in a huge revamp which was completed in 2011.

But, five years on, Labour’s Julian Ware-Lane says the road was better before any work took place.

And even the Conservative politician who oversaw the development in 2011 admitted it hasn’t worked as well as the council had hoped.

Mr Ware-Lane says the junction needs urgent improvement.

He said: “The roundabout worked pretty well I thought, but I won’t pretend there were not issues with it.

“For starters, everyone knows how a roundabout works, but the current lane configurations are confusing for drivers, especially ones that have never used it.

“The issue is the appalling design and road layout.

“I’m flagging up the issues now before we are faced with traffic hell when the new developments happen because they will add to the stresses on the junction.”

The Victoria Gateway project, which saw the roundabout removed, traffic lights put in and the area converted to “shared space” was designed to help ease jams.

While trying to make the high street and train station better connected, the paved area mixes pedestrians and vehicles - which proved divisive amongst drivers and shoppers.

However, the traffic situation for drivers coming into the town centre is unlikely to get better any time soon.

A huge housing development, of 1,000 homes, will be built in Queensway just off the clogged junction and plans for a £50million leisure complex on Seaway car park just under a mile away on the seafront will add to the congestion.

Tory Mark Flewitt, who was cabinet member for transport when the junction was redesigned, admitted that with hindsight there were things that would be done differently.

He said: If the options presented by our technical team were different, things may have been different, for example if we had overhead traffic lights like the ones at the Tesco roundabout, it may have improved things.

“That is with the benefit of hindsight. I don’t think the junction has met our expectations and it perhaps does not deliver a smooth throughput of traffic which it was meant to do.

“But it is always a very, very busy junction but from a pedestrian point of view it is a hell of a lot better.”

Drivers in Southend also expressed their difficulties with the new road layout.

Claire Cochrane said: “Roundabout worked better. Always getting caught in traffic jams now.”

And Nicola Wren added: “Traffic flowed better with the roundabout which is what a roundabout is designed to do, so why on earth was it removed?”

POLL: What should be done about Victoria Circus junction in Southend?

THE man in charge of Southend’s roads says there are pros and cons to both the roundabout and T-junction at Victoria Circus.

Independent Martin Terry, who is responsible for highways at Southend Council, had his say on the debate and said while it was always a tricky junction, another design could have worked better, but this is counterbalanced by a better-designed pedestrian area.

But 2011 is a different political landscape than 2016, and it is doubtful that any money would be made available to rip up the junction and start again.

Mr Terry, who represents Thorpe, said: “For some people, it is still a challenging junction and just purely as a traffic junction, one could argue a different design could have worked better.

“However, it does look better and has improved access for pedestrians, so from that point of view, it is much better.

“I would not say the redesign was any worse or better.”