A DECISION to put a new bus lane on the approach to a busy roundabout has come under fire after causing long rush-hour queues.

A 200m stretch of the two-lane Bicester Road, which leads off the A34 towards the roundabout south of Kidlington, has been turned into a buses-only section.

There used to be two lanes for motorists approaching the roundabout, now there is only one.

The work was carried out by Oxfordshire County Council last weekend, but motorists were confronted with heavy traffic on Tuesday morning.

Philip Minty, of Weston-on-the-Green, near Bicester, uses the roundabout to and from Oxford on a daily basis.

He said: “It was a shambles. I’ve tried calling two guys at the council and one of them said they’d had tons of calls complaining about it.

“I’ve also spoken to a number of people who aren’t happy about it.

“I spoke to one bus driver and said, ‘Are you fed up?’. He said it was ridiculous and he was going to be much later than before.

“I’ve got nothing against bus lanes, and I agree the buses should have the bus lane once they’re on the roundabout, but what they have done is to take something that was working really well and say: ‘We could extend that bus lane back 200 yards.’ “If the queues continue I think what’s going to happen is people will come down the A34 and come off at the next roundabout, and that will get more crowded.

“The other thing is traffic will turn right at the lights before the roundabout and cut through Kidlington just to get a clean run at the roundabout.

“That will create a rat-run past two schools.”

Council spokesman Paul Smith defended the scheme.

He said: “The bus lane was put in place over the weekend and involved converting the inside lane of the dual carriageway to a bus lane approaching the roundabout near Sainsbury’s.

“The first active day was Monday.

“The queues were not excessive on that day and most cars were only queued at the approach to the roundabout for a period of one or two minutes at worst.

“On Tuesday the traffic was generally busier in Oxford and surrounding areas.

“The bus lane was put in to improve the reliability of local bus services from Bicester to Oxford.

“Prior to implementation of the bus lane, traffic survey data was used to analyse traffic flows at the roundabout from all approaches.

“A lane cone-off trial was held in June to trial the effects of reducing the lane capacity on the approach to the roundabout. This was successful.

“We are monitoring the bus lane on a regular basis.

“We will make amendments to the bus lane if our monitoring leads us to believe this is required.”

He added: “Traffic monitoring took place again on Friday.

“The time it took a car to travel the length of the single lane and merge with traffic on the roundabout was between 21 seconds and one minute 15.

“Tuesday remains the only day where there has been difficulty.”