I CAN'T believe the mentality of the people in charge of road works.

On Monday, on the first night after the clocks went back and people were getting used to driving home in the dark for the first time, they have to cause chaos on the motorway.

Cones were put out cordoning off the nearside lane of the M61 at Westhoughton, causing bottlenecks and delays.

Timed that one nicely didn't they?

I have to sympathise with Sheelagh Russell, of Leigh, who featured in a Close Up North programme on Manchester's gridlock problems.

She makes the frustrating, nightmare one-hour, 12-mile trip to the Trafford Centre by car each day, blaming a lack of station in Leigh as the reason for her car journey.

The programme followed Sheelagh's trip to work and showed her trying to take a 'secret' route to avoid jams.

It featured junction 4 of the M61 turned into a car park because of road works, and even I sometimes suffer the horrors of this as traffic backs up almost to junction 6 at Horwich. It's horrendous.

A taxi driver also featured came up with a good solution. His suggestion was to follow the Hong Kong way which only allows cars carrying four people into the city. That would reduce traffic by 75 per cent immediately.

Good idea, son. I'm sure four people could reasonably find each other to share the journey, but it's still inconvenient picking up and waiting for others. Selfish, but that's the way it is.

Something has to be done.