Nobody particularly likes getting stuck in roadworks, but there are certain areas of the county that seem to be dug-up more than others.

And for the residents of Wells, business owners and people commuting in and out of the city, it feels like barely a week goes by without a new set of temporary traffic lights going up.

It's been a hot topic for the city in recent years, with traffic grinding to a crawl - if not a complete halt.

The Somerset Traffic Signal Refurbishment scheme is an £11.6m county-wide programme of investment in the network which is seeing the replacement and renewal of traffic signals which have reached the end of their working life. It covers Taunton, Yeovil, Bridgwater, Chard, Wells, Frome, Shepton Mallet and Street.

So, why are the signals being replaced?

The equipment is reaching the end of its working life, and if it is not replaced, it will fail causing even more disruption.

Between April 2021 and April 2022 The Portway/Wookey Hole junction site was in the Top 10 list of sites across the whole county with the most faults - the current signals were installed in 1996 (bar two that were replaced in 2017).

This is a critical junction for Wells. If the signals fail, there will be significant long-term disruption. It's worth stressing that the work on the junction sites includes resurfacing of the road in the immediate area, which will help ensure there is no need for repairs for many years to come.

Which traffic lights will be covered in the works?

In Wells, the programme covers the following sites:

• Mountery Road – completed August 2022

• Strawberry Way/Burcott Road - completed November 2022

• Portway/Strawberry Way junction - started November 2022

• Strawberry Way south crossing (near Lidl) - starting spring 2023

• Wookey Hole Rd/Portway Junction - starting late spring 2023

• East Liberty crossing – start date to be confirmed

What do the county council say?

We fully appreciate that there is an impact on the network, the operation to remove signals involves extensive excavation to remove ducting and wiring under the road, and we do our utmost working with the contractor to ensure disruption is kept to a minimum.

Unfortunately, due to the need to provide essential utilities such as gas, electricity and broadband, operators need to access the network, and it's not ideal, but it's inevitable that there will be works running concurrently with the signals recovery programme.

We do appreciate this can be disruptive for businesses and residents, and we are aware there has been concentrated activity on the A39 in recent years due to new development in Wells.

Somerset County Council gets about 180 requests from operators to access the network every day, more than 3,600 every month , and about 80 % of these come from utilities. We try to balance the needs of householders and new developments with the needs of road users, but sometimes delays are inevitable and what our team tries to do is ensure this is kept to a minimum.