TRAFFIC was brought to a standstill by emergency sewer works in Thames Side, Henley, on Wednesday.

A Thames Water van was parked at the side of the road while workers helped to clean a pipe in Hart Street.

However, a 12m long Tesco delivery lorry was unable to get past for half an hour, causing traffic to clog up behind.

Speaking at the scene, driver Michael Knott said: “I’m not happy about it but I can’t get through and there’s not a lot I can do. I couldn’t see there was work going on so I came straight across the junction [with Hart Street] and I was already here before I realised what had happened. It’s not like I can turn around.”

A Thames Water spokesman said: “We’re sorry for the disruption caused by this emergency job to clean a sewer pipe in Hart Street. Our engineer was required to monitor the footage from a CCTV camera in the pipe while the inside of the sewer was cleared. This was a must-do job to prevent sewer flooding in Henley.”

Published 01/03/13