The operation of the newly installed traffic lights at the Army and Navy roundabout in Chelmsford will be reviewed at the end of this month, a senior Essex County Council officer has pledged.

The county council this week ordered a survey of drivers using the roundabout as complaints about delays caused by the traffic lights escalated.

And the county council comment of last week that it was ''pleased'' with the new scheme brought an angry reaction from West Chelmsford MP, Simon Burns.

Mr Burns said: ''If the problems being caused by the traffic lights at and around the Army and Navy roundabout were not so serious they would be a joke -- albeit a sick joke.

"The congestion and unnecessary delays being caused to motorists are unacceptable and the county council must, as a matter of urgency, look into the problem.

''I went to see what was happening for myself last weekend and, like many motorists, I was anything but 'pleased.'

''The delays are unacceptable, the congestion is stacking up along the Baddow bypass and other feeder roads and the whole scheme is doing nothing but harm to traffic flows."

The county council's head of transportation and operational services, John Sanders, said: "We are collecting information and doing a survey, while recognising that it is the school holidays and flows are low.

''If we have got problems now then we have to recognise that when the schools go back then the problems are going to be worse and we will need to take a decision.

''If by the end of the month the problems are sufficiently severe then we would not want to carry on. A lot of people are saying it is a lot better, but we have to get the facts first.

''The scheme was put in as much as anything because of the bad record of accidents on that junction.

"We will review it with county councillors at the end of the month and decide whether it is worth carrying on until the autumn."

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.