Images published on social media show traffic backed up for miles in Kingston town centre at the weekend.

Frustrated visitors and residents suffered severe delays and and gridlock on Sunday, October 7, particularly along Cromwell and Richmond Roads.

One social media user wrote: “The traffic is really bad, I was stuck in that for far too long and they changed the frequency of the traffic lights by Fairfield bus station. I'm that guy in the blue Renault captur under train station bridge.

"Why did they change the frequency of the lights that's only let about 4 cars through at once."

Speaking to the Surrey Comet, the leader of the council Cllr Liz Green said: “My understanding from the brief conversation that I have had so far is that the traffic lights were phased wrong. They were not going on green for long enough.

“My understanding is that we have gone to TfL and said you’ve got to get the phasing right because it’s caused chaos for people trying to get into Kingston town centre.

“We can’t have that repeated, especially over the Christmas period, because it’s important for our retailers that people can go into Kingston town centre.

The leader of the council added: “The roadworks don’t help, I admit that. The roadworks that are happening around the junction of Wheatfield Way and Eden Street have been in place for a few weeks.

“And I think this weekend was far far worse than it has been so my understanding is that it was the phasing of the traffic lights.”

Glynn Barton, director of network management at TfL said: “We’re sorry about the traffic congestion that was experienced in Kingston town centre on Sunday. This was a result of incorrect traffic light timings at a set of new temporary traffic lights.

"We were able to override the timings on Sunday afternoon and this problem is now fully resolved. We will be monitoring these lights to ensure it does not happen again.”