Isles of Scilly to get first set of traffic lights

Updated
Mandatory Credit: Photo by Paul Felix/REX (349152a) Brightly coloured rowing boats moored in the harbour of St Marys, Isles of Scilly, Britain. ST MARYS HARBOUR, ISLES OF SCILLY, BRITAIN - 1996
Mandatory Credit: Photo by Paul Felix/REX (349152a) Brightly coloured rowing boats moored in the harbour of St Marys, Isles of Scilly, Britain. ST MARYS HARBOUR, ISLES OF SCILLY, BRITAIN - 1996


The Isles of Scilly are to get their first ever set of traffic lights.

There are only nine miles of road but the increasing number of vehicles on the roads has led to the lights being installed as part of traffic control measures, Western Morning News reports.

But the lights will only be on the tiny island of St Mary's temporarily while works are carried out on a runway at St Mary's Airport.

Councillor Amanda Martin, leader of the islands' council, told the Independent: "I believe these are the first traffic lights we've had, although they are not on the road system.

"We have got a few A-class roads and to be honest a few people have a bit of a bug bear that we have to pay road tax.

"Obviously, there are cars on the islands - but motorists would find it hard to get much more than 20mph on the roads because they are so short.

"Put it this way, you'd struggle to get into fourth gear."

The lights come 150 years after mainland UK got its first set of traffic lights.

This week, road users in North London were left baffled by a roundabout that council contractors had re-painted with the arrows pointing in the wrong direction.

According to the Evening Standard, the roundabout at the Oakfield Road and Stapleton Hall Road junction in Crouch end has been ridiculed on social media, with cyclists saying Haringey Council was taking the term 'going Dutch' too literally and calling it the "wrong-way roundabout".

A Haringey Council spokesman told LBC: "This mistake by our contractors Ringway Jacobs will be rectified as soon as possible at their expense.

"Temporary action has been taken at the roundabout to avoid confusion."

But Green Party politician baroness Jenny Jones told the Evening Standard: "You just can't afford to get this stuff wrong, or people will end up injured.

"London is full of badly designed roads, dangerous junctions and rubbish cycle lanes, so we could really do without silly mistakes making things even worse."



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