A GAS leak was causing traffic chaos in Wellington town centre on Monday (May 11) as emergency works began to trace and repair it.

And the town council has warned the work could last until Friday.

Wales and West Utilities engineers started digging up part of Longforth Road right on its junction with High Street during the morning.

The traffic lights controlling the junction were switched off and temporary four-way lights were put in place by the utilities company to control vehicles.

The result was queues of vehicles through the town centre crossroads in one direction, and nearly to the Cades roundabout in the other direction on the B3187 access to Wellington from Chelston.

A town council spokesperson said the temporary lights would be manually controlled from 7 am to 6.30 pm daily, but the WWU workers had left by about 4 pm on Monday.

The spokesperson said: “The duration of the works and closure is from May 11 and is expected to conclude on May 15.”