'Most troublesome roundabout' in Milton Keynes to get new traffic lights... at last

Troublesome traffic lights that cause motorists to be stuck at a busy roundabout are finally to be replaced.

MK City Council has given the green light to spending £120,000 on new lights at Northfield roundabout, which links the A509 (H5 Portway), the H6 Childs Way and the M1.

Close to Junction 14, the roundabout is one of the busiest in the city – but it’s also gaining a reputation as the most frustrating.

For the past three or four years, traffic there has regularly ground to a halt because the traffic light fails to turn green, drivers have complained.

In December 2019, the Citizen ran a story about a driver who reported the problem seven times in one month – only to be told the council had run out of green traffic light bulbs.

At the time a council spokesman told us: “They are not light bulbs like domestic ones but are specialist lights and the ones at this roundabout are a product that hasn’t been manufactured for about 20 years in the UK. So we have no way of getting an exact replacement for it."

Eventually, however, a green bulb was unearthed from old stock. But since then, the light has continued to break down on numerous occasions, say drivers.

"They’ve have been failing frequently. I’ve complained to the council and asked how many days the lights have been out of operation between January 2020 and now. They ignored my question,” said one motorist.

The Citizen contacted the council this week and a spokesman said a plan was in the pipeline to fix the problem.

They said: “The traffic signal infrastructure at Northfield roundabout is several years old and is more prone to failure as it has reached the end of its working life.

“It does need to be completely replaced with a new, updated system that is suitable for this busy location. MKCC is designing a new system for this roundabout to handle the existing flow and volume of traffic but also to plan ahead to accommodate the future increase in traffic from large developments to the east of MK.

“A new system here will cost around £120k and this sum has been set aside from the council's budget.”

The spokesman added: “Due to its proximity to Junction 14, this roundabout is busy almost 24 hours per day. Any large scheme will require extensive planning and will involve other road users and National Highways as it will impact on access to the M1.

“Over the last few months, MKCC has carried out different repair works to keep the existing traffic signals in use as much as possible including adding LED lights, but as the older equipment is either no longer manufactured or available, this is very difficult and cannot be carried out quickly.

“Various sections of the infrastructure have failed at different times including the power connections, the circuit boards, the lights and the loops in the road surface. We have carried out the different repairs to each of these issues to keep the traffic signals working for as long as possible whilst the replacement scheme can be designed, planned and installed.”

No timescale for the work has yet been given.