FAULTY temporary traffic lights which forced drivers to mount the kerb to avoid queues have been blamed on a resident tampering with them.

The lights, on Bread and Cheese Hill in Benfleet, have been plagued by mysterious failures during work to replace 1930s gas mains under the road.

Drivers have repeatedly been met with lights stuck on red and have been forced to attempt to navigate the road by mounting the road to avoid crashes.

Andrew Sheldon, the Essex County Council councillor responsible for South Benfleet, raised this issue with gas firm Cadent, which is carrying out the work.

Now, he has revealed that “some bright spark” has repeatedly broken into the control switch and has been “dangerously” switching them off in the middle of the night.

New lights are being installed and “double locked” to prevent further incident.

Mr Sheldon said: “Cadent have got back to me about the outages with the temporary traffic lights on Bread and Cheese Hill that seem to be happening between 12am to 4:30am every night.

“They tell me it turns out some bright spark broke open one of the control boxes on the actual signals themselves and has been physically switching them off. We don’t know why.

“I thought it was a joke when Cadent told me.

“It is incredibly dangerous and whoever is turning them off should consider the fact that they are putting lives at risk.”

Mr Sheldon adds that Cadent have brought in new lights with control boxes that can be double padlocked and made more secure.

The gas work is being carried out in phases and is set to be completed in mid-October.

Cadent apologised for the trouble caused and insisted measures are now in place to prevent issues.

A spokesman said: “We are sorry for any inconvenience the traffic lights have caused on Bread and Cheese Hill, in Benfleet, whilst we carry out our essential mains replacement project.

“We appreciate the frustrations this vandalism has caused and we have taken appropriate measures to stop further disruptions, so both motorists and our engineers are safe.