Analysis by a local transport group has found more and more people are using Rectory Close to join the St Johns Roundabout, to save them having to queue at the new traffic lights to get into the town centre.

Anecdotal evidence presented to Newbury Town Centre Management last month suggested that rush hour jams at Pound Street had led to widespread rat-running along St Michael’s Road and Rectory Close.

Residents in Rectory Close, led by Petra Barnes, were incensed with the junction redesign, and appear to have won the day after highways officials said the turn off into Pound Street would be closed “early in 2005”.

The junction was designed on a computer by traffic consultants Jacobs Babtie, who were surprised when the gridlock quickly swept through Bartholomew Street, Market Place, and Bear Lane in the first few days of operation.

Since then, the lights have been retimed several times, but the council told the committee that there was no way the lights would be switched off. Instead, the consultants are examining whether to ban cars from turning right from Bartholomew Street into Pound Street so traffic can run continuously from town to the St Johns Roundabout and vice versa.

Other options are an 8ft wide filter lane at the junction, and speeding up the lights from the A339 at Bear Lane to the Pound Street lights to speed up traffic flow.