Sittingbourne Retail Park suffered more congestion chaos at the weekend as Easter shoppers flocked to town.

The problem, which has followed the introduction of a new traffic light layout, saw motorists stuck in the car park, trying to find spaces or get home.

Pets at Home took the decision not to let people buy fish as staff were worried about them surviving.

Manager Jackie Davies said: "Pets like that can’t be in a box or bag longer than half an hour and it was taking an hour and a half to get off the retail park.

"It wasn’t nice.

"People were beeping their horns and coming in to ask us to ring police to get the traffic sorted out."

She said the traffic lights, which replaced the roundabout outside the park when the new Morrisons opened in January, were to blame.

Teynham resident Debbie Edwards was among many motorists stuck in a jam on Saturday.

The 55-year-old said: "I went out at 1.20pm for what was supposed to be a quick visit to Homebase and I didn’t get back until 4.30pm.

"The park was gridlocked when I got there, nobody was moving.

"I spent an hour looking around other shops in the hope the traffic might ease, but it didn’t.

She added: "The irritating thing was, as soon as I left the park there was hardly any traffic on the main road.

"I heard lots of people say ‘I’m never coming back here again’, and I’m one of them."

Traders at the park, which opened in 2007, are in discussions about organising a visit from Kent County Council’s Highways Department for officials to see the problem for themselves.

Mrs Davies, 34, who has worked at Pets at Home for six years, said hers is among a number of businesses suffering from the traffic nightmare.

She said: "I haven’t got the figures to hand, but takings are down on previous years.

"We can’t afford many more weekends like the last one."

Kent Highways transport and development manager Nasser Sarrafan said: "The junction on Mill Way was changed to accommodate the access arrangements and traffic movements into the Morrisons’ site.

"This was approved by Swale council as part of the planning permission for the development.

"In terms of the road scheme layout, a final assessment will be made to make sure it is running as efficiently as possible.

"This audit will recommend any required changes or modifications and should be completed by the end of April."