Drivers have suffered “traffic madness” and “massive gridlock” in Beaconsfield today as road closures for the historic Charter Fair have forced cars, lorries and even a tractor down a road that already has traffic and parking problems.

The four ends in the Old Town (Windsor, Aylesbury, Wycombe and London End) and Shepherds Lane are all closed off while the annual fair is in town today, making traffic divert into nearby Wattleton Road to get past.

Beaconsfield resident Nicki Edwards, who is a member of Wattleton Road Action Group for Pupil and Parent Safety (WRAPPS), said the road suffers with parking issues already but the closures for the fair, coupled with a lack of traffic cones to stop cars parking there, have made the situation “ludicrous.”

On a usual day, Ms Edwards said there are “blind bends and cars opposite every school entrance and the zig zags, reducing Wattleton Road to a single lane of traffic with many incidents including road rage, gridlock and near misses.” 

She said: “Today, it is the Beaconsfield Charter Fair. All traffic is diverted from the A40 onto Wattleton Road via Butlers Court Road and Station Road. Normally there are cones out and no parking signs but today there was nothing. So we now have the normal parked up congestion and blind bends but with A40 traffic – including commercial buses, skip lorries even a massive tractor.”

Ms Edwards said that while her children enjoy the fair and would be visiting, she thought it was “madness” to “direct traffic through a road with congestion problems” and witnessed some crashes there this afternoon, but praised the local policing team for directing traffic and preventing “carnage” as well as staff and teachers at Beaconsfield High School.

She said: “It is only one day a year and we could all live with it for 24 hours but to not take special measures to ensure that there is free passage along Wattleton Road is madness.”

A spokesman for the Hall Barn Estate Office said they have been “very proactive” this morning to try and deal with the traffic issues on Wattleton Road and said the lack of cones could have been an “oversight” by the company employed to deal with traffic management.

She said: “We have put measures in place, we have been in contact with all the schools and the police and we are in touch with the traffic management people on the ground as well as the Showmen, to try and minimise disruption.

“Our lovely police force will be monitoring traffic flow down there and Sergeant Lucy Price and her team are doing their utmost to ensure nothing affecting health and safety happens there.”

Dan Elworthy, spokesman for Transport for Bucks, said: “As with previous fairs, an arrangement was made with the event organisers to place cones and control the traffic management, including the diversion route.

“We have been in contact with the organisers, to ensure that they carry out their duty and remind them of the traffic management plans they submitted when applying for the road closure.”