SHOPPERS have been left "absolutely livid" after being issued with fines after being trapped for several hours in Tesco car park earlier this month - as plans for a second exit to relieve traffic are put on hold.

Issues with the traffic lights further up the A36, at the junction for Bourne Way and Petersfinger Road, caused cars to back-up all the way to the Tesco site.

Kim Davis and Barbara Mayall were among "hundreds of drivers" stuck in the car park on Southampton Road on Monday, February 4, who were then issued with £70 fines.

Barbara said this caused "total gridlock", and that she was stuck in her car for just under four hours. She added: "I am appalled that I should be charged for the inconvenience of being trapped in the chaos."

Plans for a second exit to the car park were initially submitted in 2014, after years of traffic issues and gridlock on Southampton Road.

The plans included adding a new exit from the store into New Petersfinger Road to relieve congestion at peak times.

Wiltshire Council originally opposed the plans in 2016, saying Milford Mill Road and New Petersfinger Road were unsuitable to hold the volume of traffic expected to be leaving the car park.

But later that year an independent inspector granted permission for the exit, saying reducing queuing time in the car park would lead to “social and environmental benefits” that outweighed any risk of harm to the surrounding area.

Now, five years after the planning process was started, a resolution to the issue does not seem any nearer.

A spokesman for Tesco said despite obtaining planning permission for the exit: "It is not in [their] current development plan."

It comes as a new 65-bed Premier Inn has opened next to the superstore, with a 24-hour McDonald’s drive-thru set to open on the same site in the near future.

Barbara added: "Tesco clearly must've known about the problem, and could've warned the company [who issue the fines] to save themselves this annoyance and embarrassment."

Kim, who also received a fine, had gone to Tesco on her lunch break but had to abandon her car and collect it at the end of the day.

When Kim complained to Tesco, she received a reply full of mistakes, including her name, which said: "Very sorry to learn of your visit to the store has caused you to try and get out of the car park nothing but a nightmare[sic]" but offered no further help.

A spokesman for Tesco said penalty charges are issued automatically after a certain time limit but notices would be cancelled "where the circumstances were genuinely beyond the customers’ control."