COUNCIL chiefs will be sitting down with Highways Agency bosses following traffic hell on Friday night.

Motorists were stuck on gridlocked roads throughout Warrington for hours during the evening rush hour with journey times in some cases more than tripling following the closure of part of the M6 after a lorry fire and chemical spill.

The Warrington Guardian Facebook and Twitter pages were flooded with complaints from angry motorists with many calling for council officials to rev into action after it was revealed an estimated additional 14,000 vehicles per hour travelled through Warrington during the chaos.

Steven Broomhead, council chief executive, apologised to businesses and residents affected and added earlier warnings on motorways could allow motorists to make choices earlier and avoid the town.

Cllr Bob Barr, Liberal Democrat parliamentary spokesman for Warrington South, was also critical of tolls on Warburton Bridge affecting traffic and said the problem would easily be solved if 'goodwill existed on both sides'.

He added: "It is not congestion in Warrington or on the Thelwall Viaduct that matters.

"The tolls should be lifted as soon as the queues start impeding the flow of traffic on the A57 or the Partington Lymm Road.

"I am sure a revenue neutral solution would be possible but it would require Warrington Borough Council's stance to be more robust and Peel Holdings to be less stubborn.

"The company appears to have little time for their corporate social responsibility to the people of Warrington, this simply isn't good enough."

A spokesman for the Highways Agency said the official emergency diversion route was agreed 'some years ago' with Warrington Borough Council and the council is always informed quickly of any closures.

He added: “Clearly motorways are only ever closed in exceptional circumstances and we work alongside the emergency services to ensure they can be re-opened as soon as possible.

"In the meantime, we aim to get drivers quickly onto diversion routes to keep them moving rather than having thousands of vehicles stuck on the motorway posing significant welfare challenges."

Officials added drivers planning their journeys also had a 'role to play' as news about the incident was issued to travel media 20 minutes after the incident and only a minute after it was reported to the Highways Agency’s regional control centre in Newton.

The spokesman added: “Given the location of Friday’s incident it was inevitable that some traffic would be delayed in Warrington.

"However, we were particularly pleased to note that our signed strategic diversion routes from the south along the M56 and M62 onto the M60 were used by a significant number of motorists which reduced the impact on Warrington and the local area.”

A council spokesman added they understood motorists’ frustrations but they had no control over traffic leaving the motorway looking for alternative routes.

He added: "All local roads on the M6 corridor were affected by this major incident and were not able to cope with the congestion.

"The council did manually intervene at key locations and changed traffic signals in an attempt to alleviate the situation but it was simply so busy.

“The council is currently working on plans to construct new crossings of both the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal, which will help traffic flow across Warrington when they are completed. "However during incidents such as the one on Friday night, congestion would still occur as local roads are not designed to cope with the volume of traffic from the motorway network.”