Picture: Martin Apps

Drivers were left furious after it took more than ten hours to clear up the wreckage of a crashed lorry carrying soup.

There was traffic gridlock across the town when the lorry toppled over at the Crooksfoot roundabout, at junction 10 of the M20, shortly after 6am last Wednesday.

Traffic backed up as some of the area’s busiest roads were closed until nearly 5pm.

Police closed the A292 Hythe Road into Ashford and the A2070 Bad Munstereifel Road.

The Romney Marsh Road roundabout at the junction with the A2070 was also closed as traffic tailbacks spilled back past Orbital Park.

The road closures left many motorists angry and frustrated.

Jill Humphreys from Willesborough, said: “I work in a school and staff and pupils were held up in the resulting mayhem, many not arriving at school until 10am having spent hours stuck in traffic.

“A friend tried to get from the Ellingham Estate into the town at 1pm and had to turn back. Another left Shadoxhurst at 2pm and after trying to join the standing traffic in Boys Hall Road, gave up and went back.

“We had children waiting for parents to collect them from the school at 3.30 pm because they were sitting in queues around the town.
It was a total disaster.”

The Highways Agency said the clean up job took a long time because of the amount of leaked fuel and the nature of the lorry’s load.

A spokesman said: “The reason the roads were closed for so long was because of the amount of diesel.

"We had to wait for a special sucking machine to clear the diesel and then individual packets of soup had to be picked up by hand. We cannot open a road unless it is safe to do so.”

Fire crews helped to control the spread of the leaking diesel until the special equipment arrived.

One engine from Ashford fire station was called to lay down matting to absorb the spillage and stop it leaking into drains.