TRAFFIC chiefs slammed on the brakes and ordered the reversal of a controversial £20,000 scheme to slow down drivers after protests from angry villagers.

The order to scrap two chicanes aimed at slowing traffic on the busy main road at both ends of Fairfield was made just days after construction work began and before contractors could finish the job.

The decision to bulldoze the obstacles left residents and drivers, who frequently use the road, puzzled, angry and delighted.

As work progressed many residents branded the chicanes dangerous and ill-conceived.

A petition was set up calling for a rethink.

When they became operational villagers' worst fears were justified.

Some reported being horrified to see impatient drivers ignore priority signs and mount the footpath to pass vehicles coming in the opposite direction.

Others complained of long tailbacks resulting in pollution in their homes and vehicles being revved up and speeding off once through the obstacles.

The comment of Richard Jones, from Bromsgrove, who uses the road regularly, that the scheme was "barmy" was typical of many.

"I'm staggered it got as far as it did before it was seen to be so absurd," he said.

He added that the cash could have been better spent on road repairs.

The decision to scrap the plan and make good the highway was taken at a hurriedly convened meeting between Worcestershire County Council, Bromsgrove District Council and Belbroughton Parish Council representatives in the village hall last Wednesday, May 16.

District councillor Mike Gill (Con, Woodvale) said: "I thought they were very dangerous."

But Jon Fraser, manager of the county council's highways partnership, based at the Council House, in Bromsgrove, and the man responsible for the scheme, denied making a costly bungle.

He said: "The plan looked fine on paper but when it began to actually take shape, we started to get complaints.

"We had to make the decision to press on or scrap it, so we chose that option."

Now officers have gone back to the drawing-board to come up with another solution.

Mr Fraser said money for the scheme came from the county's safer routes to schools fund and could not be used for road repairs.