It was the fictional town of Royston Vasey in BBC's League of Gentleman which warned visitors 'you'll never leave'.

Eastern Daily Press: The roadworks near Drayton Lane in Horsford. Photo: Luke PowellThe roadworks near Drayton Lane in Horsford. Photo: Luke Powell (Image: Archant)

But the same could have been said for Horsford, near Norwich, this week after commuters struggled to exit the village.

Sequencing issues with two sets of temporary traffic lights on Holt Road resulted in long queues on Tuesday morning.

It led to Norfolk County Council apologising for what it described as 'unacceptable' delays to Norwich-bound traffic.

The lights were installed as part of ongoing work on the Northern Distributor Road (NDR).

But problems with sequencing resulted in traffic stretching from the Drayton Lane junction in the south of the village through to The Brickmakers Arms, near St Helena Way.

Tim Harris, 51, from Horsford, said a journey to Norwich to drop off his wife and daughter usually took him around 30 minutes.

But on Tuesday morning he said the same trip took an hour-and-a-half.

'The lights were clashing, so you could get through one set, but then people hadn't cleared through the next lot and you would meet a queue,' he said.

'They [the workers] must be used to how these things work and you would think they would do surveys before they stick the lights in.'

Another driver, who did not wish to be named, said the traffic had become so bad that people were getting out of their cars and taking photos.

John Birchall, public liaison officer for the NDR project, said the lights at Horsford will allow for the tie-in of the Drayton Lane roundabout on Holt Road.

He added: 'We are really sorry about the lengthy delays on Tuesday and again yesterday afternoon.

'People living in Horsford and using Holt Road have had to put up with a lot of disruption, with more to come, so we accept that it's particularly galling for them when delays seem far longer than necessary.'

Following complaints, he said manual control of the lights was brought in over busy periods.

'These 24-hour traffic lights will stay in place while the roundabout with the realigned Drayton Lane is tied in to the existing carriageway,' he added.

An apology posted on the official NDR Facebook page described the delays as 'unacceptable'.