FRESH calls have been made for temporary traffic lights said to be causing 'traffic misery' on Isca Road in Caerleon to be altered have been rejected.

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) is bidding to improve the flood defences at Caerleon Road, New Road and Lulworth Road by building new flood walls and replacing parts of the existing flood walls and embankments.

Temporary traffic lights operate from 9.30am until 3.30pm, but concerns have been raised at the level of traffic around the 'school run' times in the afternoon.

Michael Enea, a Liberal Democrats activist of Buttermere Way in St Julians, said they had submitted proposals to reduce the use of the temporary traffic lights to 9am until 2.30pm.

"This would bring the lights forward by on hour whereby missing the afternoon school run, however, they would provide the contractors with a spare 30mins of extra work in the mornings," he said.

"These simple tweaks to the timings presented a sensible solution that would have eased the misery and frustration experienced by hundreds of people."

But after NRW said they would not be altering the timings Mr Enea said he they were 'extremely disappointed' by the decision.

He added: "Our observations are that the lights are used around three times a week into the school run, so with a 30minute daily reduction, this would have resulted in 1.5hr reduction per week or just 15 hours over a ten week period," he said.

"We do not believe our proposal would’ve greatly extended the length of the project overall.

"We understand the importance of undertaking the flood defence work, however, we also feel that the local community have been severely let down by the council."

But John Hogg, head of operations for South East Wales, Natural Resources Wales (NRW), said:

“Our priority is to make sure the homes and businesses in the area have a better level of protection from flooding as soon as possible.

“We have looked at ways to limit the impact of the works but Newport City Council have confirmed that we cannot begin work on site before 9.30am. The less time our contractors spend on site, the longer the project will take and the more it will cost the tax payer.

“We understand how busy the roads can get at certain times of the day and have already reduced the working hours on site to avoid the rush hour traffic.

“We continue to monitor the situation and look to discuss with Newport Council how we can help the situation without delaying the project further.”