Severn Trent Water has apologised after unauthorised roadworks were set up 100m from another set of temporary traffic lights in Staffordshire. The utility firm failed to secure a permit before starting work to fix a damaged manhole in Werrington Road near to the junction with Winston Place, in Bucknall but its teams were then called away and the lights, which were not in-sync with each other, were left in situ, causing congestion and hour-long delays, says the Stoke Sentinel.

Severn Trent was already carrying out emergency repairs to a burst water pipe a short distance away at the junction of Werrington Road and Northfleet Street. The company has admitted that the permit needed for the second set of roadworks was not submitted to Stoke-on-Trent City Council in time.

A Severn Trent spokesperson told Highways News: “This week has seen a lot of disruption in the area, due to a series of unconnected issues and for this we have apologised. Our teams have been working hard around the clock in difficult circumstances to get everything back to normal.

“On Werrington Road on Wednesday we were attempting to carry out emergency repairs to a damaged manhole. Two-way traffic lights for the repair had been set up to keep our crews and public safe, but our teams were then forced to leave site and unfortunately in this commotion, the required permit for those works was not submitted to the council in time. We have been communicating with the council and highways on this matter and returned to the site on Thursday, with a full permit, to quickly complete the emergency manhole repair works and co-ordinated traffic management plans to keep disruption to a minimum. “This was a separate set of works to an emergency repair of a burst water pipe – which has a valid permit – taking place a short distance away. We do understand how frustrating these kinds of repairs are and would like to thank everyone for their understanding and patience.”

(Picture: Mapillary)