Christmas shoppers stuck for up to six hours in Bluewater car park queues
|
Version 0 of 1. Christmas shoppers were left stranded for up to six hours after heavy traffic blocked car park exits at Bluewater shopping centre in Kent. Police were called to help clear the backlog when a broken-down vehicle and high visitor numbers caused traffic chaos. Visitors expressed their frustration on social media. Chris Clarke wrote that he first tried to leave at 3.10pm but gave up after making little progress. He eventually got out at 9.35pm, tweeting: “After 6 hour delay in the bluewater carpark. Finally on the move!” Emma Mulcrow tweeted that it had taken over two hours to leave Bluewater and 90 minutes alone to leave the car park. Kent police said officers had directed traffic to help clear the backlog and the traffic was now running freely. A spokeswoman for Bluewater said it worked hard to keep traffic to a minimum. She said: “While the traffic in surrounding areas is out of Bluewater’s control, we have a dedicated team who work closely with organisations such as Kent police and Highways England, to minimise traffic congestion at peak times. “This includes deploying additional hosts in our car parks to help guests find spaces, as well as implementing traffic controls on surrounding roads. In addition, our extended opening hours provide guests with the greatest possible amount of time to visit.” |