The Environment Agency caused traffic chaos in Worcester yesterday after taking down the flood defences.

Hylton Road, St John's, was closed for about four hours from about 10am to just after 2pm while the agency took down the barriers that had been in place along the river Severn since last Friday.

While the defences were being removed police diverted drivers along Henwick Road in St John's, causing traffic jams and long delays over the lunchtime period.

A police spokesman said: "We had officers at the scene for a number of hours and consistently attempted to minimise the disruption.

"Hylton Road carries substantial traffic levels all day and is, in the main, free of parked vehicles at the narrower points along its length.

"The same cannot be said for Henwick Road which was never intended to take the traffic levels diverted through it today as a purely temporary measure.

"We would continue to ask motorists generally to be patient and for those parking in Henwick Road in particular to be as mindful and considerate as possible about where and how their vehicles are left."

The move to bring the barriers down came as a surprise because the Worcester News was told on Tuesday that the defences would stay up until the weekend at least.

A spokeswoman for the Environment Agency defended its decision to take the barriers down in the day. He said: "If we hadn't put the defences up along the road in the first place then the road would have flooded which would have caused even longer delays.

"And if we hadn't taken them down and the river levels hadn't reached the barriers people would have been asking why haven't they taken them down?' "We haven't brought them down with the idea of putting them back up again in a couple of days - we wouldn't work like that. We hope and believe they will stay down but it depends on the weather and we are monitoring it closely."

She added that the work was carried out in the day rather than at night - which was the case when the barriers were put up last week - because of health and safety and operational reasons.

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