SOUTH Lakeland District Councillor Andrew Butcher says he fears someone could get hurt as drivers use shortcuts around Urswick and Pennington to beat delays on the A590.

Motorists have been stuck in traffic jams on the road for over an hour in both directions, and have called for roadworks to be completed overnight to avoid severe disruptions.

Temporary traffic lights, opposite the Shell Garage on Canal Street, have been in place since Monday and will be until the end of the week.

Mr Butcher said he believed road users lose care on the backroads because they are running late and has said it won’t be long before a serious accident occurs.

He said: “The situation is abysmal for everyone involved. Drivers are using shortcuts to avoid the traffic delays but they are going at a higher speeds because they are late for work.

“I know that it is an accident is waiting to happen if things don’t change, and it could be fatal.

“Road users lose care when they are late, so the Government and Highways England need to get involved with this shambles.”

He added: “We are trying to bring more people to Barrow and Ulverston to boost the local economy, but why would anybody visit if the A590 is blocked constantly?”

Last month, Ulverston Town Council unanimously approved the sending of a strong complaint inspired by the monumental traffic jams through Ulverston.

The Mail reported that these were caused by road works in Canal Street putting services into a few new houses.

Councillor Mark Wilson added: “I was stuck in traffic for 45 minutes going up to Carlisle and I was stuck for nearly an hour on the way back.

“It is a total nuisance that disrupts thousands of people. At the next district council meeting, I will ask them to put special conditions in place to see if they can work during hours that won’t effect people as much.

“The A590 roadworks have been chaos in recent weeks and this is no better.”

A spokesman for Highways England said: "These are again not Highways England works but utility works related to the same development as the works in recent weeks - in this case water company activities.

"Thanks to a dialogue with us the works have been reduced by a day and should be removed by the end of tomorrow.

"Because this is deep excavation work it was not possible to remove the traffic management and temporary traffic lights.

“We have insisted the company takes steps to reduce the impact on drivers such as staffing lights to cut needless queuing and extra signing to prevent blocking of junctions by vehicles in queues.’’