TRAFFIC chaos following a head-on collision on the main A386 near Horrabridge last week has prompted renewed calls for the controversial Whitchurch rural gateway to be scrapped.

The Tavistock to Plymouth road was closed for around six hours while police investigations continued after the accident.

Traffic was diverted through Whitchurch Road via Horrabridge, but the volume of cars using the single-track rural gateway near Grenofen and narrow roads through Horrabridge caused huge back-ups. Drivers were eventually directed on a huge detour via Princetown or advised to get to Plymouth via Callington and Saltash.

Sheila Fenner, of Tavistock, said she ?couldn?t believe her ears? when she was told to go home via Princetown and called on the county council to re-instate two-way traffic in Whitchurch Road.

Mrs Fenner said: ?It was beyond belief ? do planners not have the common sense to consult with the emergency services before imposing these hare-brained schemes which are paid for by public money?

?This illustrates yet again that this gateway is a farcical idea ? it?s just madness.?

Cllr Ted Sherrell, who lives on Whitchurch Road, said: ?The fact this area can no longer accommodate two-way traffic meant the previously reasonable solution of re-routing traffic to and from Tavistock was no longer available.

?County councillors and officials who pushed through this scheme against massive local opposition were warned such a situation would occur, but, not for the first time, would not listen.?

Cllr Nicholas Waterhouse, Liberal Democrat group leader on West Devon Borough Council, said: ?The bottom line is that this was something that was waiting to happen and will happen again sooner or later.

?If you are going to keep the road in this state then there have to be arrangements for manning it at either end of the narrow bit, getting a proper traffic flow through it.?

PC Dominic Waites, of Tavistock Police, said: ?The problem with the gateway is it just can?t put up with heavy traffic. The accident occurred at about 10am, it?s a busy time of day and the A386 is a busy road.

?When it?s an accident that can be dealt with fairly quickly the system of passing people through Horrabridge isn?t too bad because traffic doesn?t back up, but with a longer incident the situation is more of a problem.?

PC Waites said the situation was exacerbated when a bus got stuck in Horrabridge.

Acting Inspector Greg Jarrett, of Plympton traffic unit, said: ?Our first responsibility is to properly investigate a collision where there are people either killed or seriously injured, and whilst we obviously pay due regard to how quickly we do that, we wouldn?t want to cut corners in order to clear up the scene quickly.?

Acting inspector Jarrett said when accidents were of a serious nature ? and police were guided by health professionals in making such a judgement ? the highways department was called in to manage traffic.

?They have pre-planned diversions for whenever a closure of a main road occurs. By the very nature of the area there are going to be congestions, but our first duty is to the families of the people involved; they would expect us to do a thorough investigation. People will be inconvenienced and while we regret that, it?s a fact of life.?

He could not comment on the effect of the rural gateway on congestion but said officers felt much of the difficulty was caused by drivers not giving way to oncoming traffic.

Graham Atkins, local service officer for Devon County Council, said while it was unfortunate that drivers were inconvenienced as a result of the accident, the rural gateway was democratically installed for the benefit of the community and it would not be reasonable to remove it for the sake of isolated incidents.

Yelverton firefighters had to cut the roof off one of the cars to release the driver following the crash ? firefighters stayed at the scene to make sure leaking fuel did not ignite.

Three people were taken to Derriford Hospital following the accident. One of the drivers suffered a broken jaw, nose, collarbone and ribs ? his passenger suffered multiple cuts and bruises. The other driver was kept in hospital for observation.