ON Friday March 5, a petrol tanker was involved in an accident between J11 and J12 on the M40.

The northbound carriageway was completely closed as a result. At 1.45 pm I joined the M40 en route to Banbury at Cherwell services. After travelling for two miles, I joined the tailback of vehicles waiting to move north.

At 5pm. I finally reached J11 in order to be able to turn around and return to Bicester.

The large matrix signs on the northbound side exhorted traffic to keep below 40mph. Brilliant information – 4mph was impossible!

If the road was blocked for so long, why did there appear to be no signs preventing traffic from joining the northbound carriageway at J10. Now that would have been a good idea. Highways Agency please take note. Your sign system is flawed. Alternatively, could not Thames Valley Police have put out signs if the agency could not manage it or is this a sign of demarcation rearing its ugly head once again? After all the force’s traffic headquarters is only five miles away, at most, and is accessible via local side roads, which I had just traversed.

The last traffic bulletin I heard on local radio was that the road was likely to remain closed until at least 7pm – and that was information from the Highways Agency.

The large electronic signs may be very pretty but don’t seem to cover the things they should.

Chris Payne Turnpike Road Caversfield