A SIMPLE one-way system through the centre of Taunton is the answer to the town's rush hour traffic gridlock, according to a leading trader.

Mike Giles, owner of Bredons Sewing and Knitting Machine Centre in East Street, is demanding action to tackle traffic queues that frustrate commuters battle every day.

He is calling on the local authorities to introduce a one-way system along East Street and to remove traffic lights which he blames for many of the prob-lems.

Mr Giles, 75, who is chairman of the East Reach Traders' Association, has been trading in the area for 32 years.

He said this week: "At rush hour there's just total traffic chaos.

"All the time people are queuing be-hind traffic lights which only let one or two cars through.

"We've come up with the idea of turning the clock back 18 years and having a one-way system.

"Traffic coming into town to go up East Reach would instead bear left into Silver Street and Hurdle Way, and then continue on to be brought into town at The Crescent, for example, where it would then turn right into town.

"Coming out of town, traffic would go along Corporation Street into Fore Street and East Street, and then either into Silver Street or continue straight on down East Reach."

Mr Giles believes the one-way sys-tem should be extended so the whole of the town is on a circuit.

"I'm certain that it would make a major difference having a one-way system and that traffic would flow a lot better as cars wouldn't have to cross each other at all," he said.

A spokesman for Somerset Highways told the County Gazette there was cur-rently a Taunton Traffic Strategy review taking place and schemes would be considered.

But he had no comment specifically in relation to a one-way system.

Taunton Town Centre manager Lucy Ball said traffic problems were now common in most successful towns.

She said: "I hope the new roads an-nounced last year, including the inner relief road, northern distributor road, improvements to the A358 and the new park-and-ride scheme at junction 25, will all make a difference.

"As for a one-way system, it seems logical, but we'd need highways engi-neers to tell us whether or not it would work."

No-one from Taunton Deane Coun-cil was available to comment when the County Gazette went to press.