DRIVERS have endured delays of more than an hour as a result of temporary traffic lights, which will be in place until the end of the month.

In a crash yesterday between a car and a van, one of the vehicles smashed into the traffic lights on the A2270 Eastbourne Road, near Polegate.

East Sussex Highways has installed temporary lights as a replacement but warned of continuing delays at the busy junction until the equipment can be replaced.

This is not expected to happen until later this month as the lights were made from “obsolete technology” which is no longer readily available, lengthening the repair time.

A spokesman said: “The temporary lights are not as sophisticated as permanent ones and don’t link with the nearby signals at the junction of the A27 and A22, so traffic is flowing less smoothly than normal.

“The traffic light controller that was damaged was obsolete technology that is no longer available and our contractor will need to build a new one using modern technology that will also require replacing the traffic light heads themselves and some of the sensors to integrate with the new controller.

“We appreciate that this may cause disruption to motorists and we’d like to reassure residents that we’ve asked our contractor to put all other works on hold and focus on getting the lights up and running as quickly as possible.

“In the meantime, we’d ask drivers to take into account potential delays when planning their journey, and to consider using alternative routes where possible.”

While the temporary lights are in place, East Sussex Highways have said staff will monitor traffic levels both on site and remotely from their base in Ringmer.