Traffic chaos sparked by the closure of a busy Keighley road has left motorists seeing red.

Huge tailbacks were created on major routes through the town following the closure on Tuesday -- for 16 weeks -- of a section of Oakworth Road, for a sewer and water main replacement scheme.

The traffic nightmare is set to be compounded today when a large part of the town centre will be closed -- except to pedestrians -- for a parade by the 1st Battalion Duke of Wellington Regiment, celebrating its tercentenary.

This week the Keighley News took calls from drivers blaming traffic lights installed to help vehicle flows on the Oakworth Road diversion route for creating many of the problems.

Businessman Alan Marr said timings on the lights -- at the junction of Queen's Road and South Street -- appeared to be incorrectly set.

Mr Marr, who owns Almar Self Serve, in Hard Ings Road, and a filling station in Halifax, said: "The lights are allowing a disproportionate amount of time for vehicles to come out of Queen's Road, which is causing massive queues right through the town.

"Keighley has ground to a halt -- it is an absolute disgrace. When you go to the likes of Halifax it is a completely different story. It proudly promotes itself as a car friendly town, something Keighley certainly cannot claim."

His comments are echoed by Stuart Feeny, a director of Colin Appleyard Ltd, which has car and motorcycle showrooms in Keighley.

"The whole situation is absolutely crazy and illogical," he said. "Traffic would flow much better without the lights.

"No doubt someone has sat at a computer screen somewhere for hours planning this, but they clearly haven't done their homework.

"Queues are building up all over the town. We had a customer in from Wales this week and it took him nearly as long to travel from Halifax to Keighley as it did from the far side of Manchester to Halifax."

Bradford Council told the Keighley News that the traffic lights had only recently been installed and that they would be reviewed and monitored on a continual basis.

Yorkshire Water apologised to motorists for the problems caused by the Oakworth Road closure, but said the move was essential for safety reasons.

And it urged people to continue to support traders in the closed section. Most businesses -- apart from Springfield Filling Station, which has shut for the eight-week-long first phase of the work -- have remained open.

Today Keighley & District Travel has had to arrange temporary terminal points for its services -- between 12.30pm and about 2pm -- because the bus station will not be accessible by vehicles due to the freedom parade of theDuke of Wellington's Regiment.

And extra drivers are being drafted in to provide cover.

Company bosses are angry that they were not consulted about today's road closures prior to arrangements being finalised.

K&DT operations manager Jeff Smith said he only found out about the plans after a phone call on Wednesday of last week to the Bradford Lord Mayor's office.

Initially he had been told the bus station would be unaffected.

Following the phone call, he contacted Keighley police and has liaised with them since.

Graham Mitchell, communications manager with K&DT, said: "As the major bus operator, we were very unhappy that nobody had thought to involve us in the consultation.

"We have had to extremely speedily carry out a major re-arrangement of routes and work schedules.

"It has been a huge logistical operation."

But Keighley police claim the bus company was given considerable notice of the closures.

Insp Christopher Moorehouse said: "We have been in full and early contact with Bradford Council -- whose civic event this is -- concerning all the road closures and potential inconvenience caused by the Duke of Wellington Regiment's parade.

"Keighley & District Travel had a number of weeks' notice of the event and contingencies were considered and implemented by the bus company, West Yorkshire Police, the council and other agencies.