SCORES of shoppers were stranded in a supermarket car park for up to four hours, it emerged yesterday, as roadworks caused traffic chaos.
Customers at the Tesco store in Dragonville, near Durham City, faced huge delays on Monday due to temporary traffic lights at a nearby roundabout on Dragon Lane.
The problem got so bad that store managers had to send out a team to replace shoppers' frozen goods, which had melted while they queued in the car park.
Durham County Council's highways officers came out and ordered the contractor to stop work to alleviate the pressure.
Peter Nicholson and his wife, of Newton Hall, near Durham, were stuck at Tesco for around three hours.
Mr Nicholson, 55, said: "It was a nightmare. People could get in all right, but they couldn't get out.
"What should have been a 20 minute shopping trip for us turned into three hours, and there were other people who had been stuck longer than us. Nobody wanted to take responsibility and the store weren't warning people.
"The customer always comes last, except when they want your money off you."
A spokesman for Tesco confirmed it had offered a frozen goods replacement service for stranded shoppers.
He said: "We took a number of measures to alleviate the situation for our customers and things are now back to normal."
The roadworks were needed after a contractor carried out work for Northumbrian Water earlier this year, which involved digging up part of the carriageway.
The council was unhappy with the way the contractor had re-laid the manhole covers, and ordered them to come back and sort it out.
A spokesman for Northumbrian Water said: "Contractors visited the site in advance to plan the job. Part of that planning process involved Tesco. The paperwork was submitted in advance to the council, requesting traffic lights for three days, starting on Monday. There was no challenge from the council.
"Work has obviously stopped now and there will be a meeting between the council, ourselves and the contractor to plan the best possible time for all concerned."
A council spokesman said: "Normally, we would schedule this sort of work for a Sunday. This one slipped through the administrative net.
"We didn't think it would cause a problem over half-term. As soon as our officers realised there was a problem, they put a stop to it.
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