THERE is chaos for motorists this morning with Caversham in gridlock after the traffic lights on Sonning Bridge failed.

At one point a woman villager began directing traffic herself in a bid to get fuming commuters across the single-file bridge in Thames Street but the tailbacks stretched to the Reading-Henley road and back towards Charvil in the other direction.

The popular rush hour route is used by drivers getting to and from the M4 and Reading's northern approaches. With motorists trying to find alternative ways to cross the Thames, traffic quickly built up in Caversham with a knock-on effect across the town centre.

Police later took over the traffic control as engineers tried to find the fault.