TRAFFIC lights at Rayleigh Weir are now working after almost three weeks of disruption to traffic.

Commuters have endured rush hour misery each day since the lights failed on September 4 and temporary traffic lights were brought in along with the closure of one lane of the A127.

However, after hopes of fixing the issue were dashed on Saturday with a new fault being discovered and a Siemens specialist unable to resolve it on Monday, the traffic lights were reported as running as normal at about 4pm today – just in time for rush hour.

The news will come as a relief to stressed-out commuters, as well as businesses in the area, which have suffered from a drop in trade.

Sainsbury’s deputy manager Jason McGarry said: “It’s been a real disruption for access to the store in both directions and we’ve had lots of complaints from customers because it was taking them and our staff about three times as long to get here.

“They’ve either been going elsewhere or making their larders work harder and customer numbers have definitely dropped over the last three weeks.”

Essex County Council had repeatedly apologised for the disruption and highways councillor Rodney Bass said he had ensured the council was treating the problem as a top priority.