THE sudden unexpected appearance of road works and the traffic jams they cause are a source of considerable annoyance.

Too often it seems that there is no co-ordination so that a gas supplier will be digging up the road a few hundred yards away from where a water company is working on the highway.

The result is traffic chaos especially for people trying to get to or from work.

Obviously work of all kinds has to be done to keep essential services operating smoothly and if there is an emergency roads will have to be dug up in a hurry.

But to minimise disruption to people's lives common sense dictates that local councils and police should have a much notice as possible of where and when such work is to take place.

They can then organise traffic diversions if necessary and re-route public transport so that areas are not plunged into chaos.

With this in mind it is easy to understand the upset felt by Blackburn and Darwen Council when they were effectively accused by magistrates of wasting court time in prosecuting United Utilities for failing to serve notice of road works within two hours of the job starting.

The council said it had only taken action after repeated failures. Such irritation is understandable.