FED-UP residents are hopping mad over roadworks that have gone on all summer.

They say underground gas pipe work along Pool Road in Otley- part of a £250,000 project across the town - started more than five weeks ago and looks no closer to being finished.

And they claim there have been endless problems with temporary traffic lights going 'on the blink'. In addition, as well as normal traffic, several vehicle rallies on their way to Harewood House have been caught up in the mess.

Michael Winterburn, who lives in Pool Road, said: "In the five weeks all this has been going on there has been a commercial vehicle rally, a Rolls-Royce Rally and a vintage car rally.

"There've been three different events and the school holidays and people coming to this market town of ours and they've all got caught up."

Mr Winterburn added what really made him and his neighbours annoyed was that work on site did not appear to be constant.

The roadworks stretch from just by The Bib and Tucker and Summercross pub to St Clair Terrace with traffic lights at each end.

"Most of the time there appears to be no-one there. Certainly at weekends there is no-one and they seem to finish at 11am on Fridays," he said.

On top of this, numerous faults with the traffic lights have left motorists fuming.

"On August 16 the lights at both ends were off all day and there were traffic wardens at each end," said Mr Winterburn. "And again on Friday morning the lights on the Pool side weren't working.

"People were getting fed up and meeting in the middle, but it's not their fault, it's the fault of the lights," he added.

Michelle Lowe, manager at The Bib and Tucker, off Pool Road, said despite customers having to negotiate the traffic lights trade had not been adversely affected.

"The worse thing is if you're wanting to come in to the pub you can be caught for ages in the traffic as far back as Stephen Smith's Garden Centre," she said.

John O'Grady, spokesman for gas pipe line operator Transco, apologised to residents and promised the work on Pool Road would be finished by the end of this week.

The £250,000 project, which also includes work along Bradford Road and Burras Lane, will see the replacement of old pipes with plastic ones.

He said: "Transco and the contractors would like to apologise for the inconvenience to our customers in Otley. We hope that people will appreciate that we are making a significant investment to keep gas flowing for all our customers."

Mr O'Grady said the money being spent in Otley was the second largest investment after Pateley Bridge in the whole of Yorkshire.

"It is a rolling programme and rather than going into Otley and doing a couple of projects then coming back again, we made the decision to do them all together and have more inconvenience for a shorter time."

Mr O'Grady added that work on Pool Road had taken longer than expected because the usual team had gone on holiday and other workers had been brought in.

"The work on Pool Road will be completed by the end of the week, I cannot say when the other work will be finished, it will all depend on weather," he said.