A HUGELY unpopular road closure in Langley could have been cut short earlier, it has emerged, but officials say it would not have helped matters.

Market Lane, an important linking road between Iver and Langley, reopened on Monday following a controversial six-month traffic experiment.

However, it is has now emerged that the traffic capacity tests could have been carried out in as little as two weeks.

The Department for Transport’s (DFT) Traffic Analysis Guidance states that Automatic Traffic Counts, the method deployed by Slough Borough Council (SBC), need only be carried out “for at least two full weeks”.

The DFT has clarified that there is no minimum period for data gathering when an experimental road closure is in place, but Cllr Councillor Ted Plenty (Labour Langley St Mary’s) believes the six-month closure was excessive. He said: “There was no need to take data for six months so why did they? DFT guidance says two weeks gives you a 95 per cent confidence interval. I am gobsmacked as to why they shut it for so long.”

A spokesman for SBC said: “The DFT’s guidelines will provide raw data for modelling, but modelling does not work for Slough because it has such irregular traffic patterns.

“We carried out an on-the-ground experiment to get more realistic results.

“We wanted to be able to provide more than just two weeks’ data which would have been during the summer holidays when the roads are quieter. This way we were able to test traffic both in and out of school time and over the busy Christmas period.

“We also wanted to gather non-data related feedback and it was obvious it was causing problems.”

SBC closed the link road in August to test the capacity of alternative routes with railway proposals, including the Western Rail Link to Heathrow (WRLtH) and Crossrail, expected to close the bridge permanently in the future.

The shut road caused travel chaos in the area, as well as reports of drag racing and flytipping.

The closure was originally supposed to last 18 months before a backlash from residents brought the date forward.

But as one road reopens, another closes with Spencer Road in Langley shutting for five months from Monday so work can progress on a housing development and a roundabout can be built at the junction with Langley Road.