CHAOS (From Barry And District News)

CHAOS

PARTS of Barry came to a complete standstill during Tuesday"s rush hour when South Wales Police closed all the main routes out of the town following a "small" chemical spill.

Cardiff Road, Sully Moors Road and the Barry Docks Link Road were all closed to the public from around 4.30pm to 7pm as people tried to get home from work.

Commuters spoke of being stuck in country lanes for hours, and it took one office worker an hour just to get from Barry to Penarth.

But South Wales Police have defended their actions by saying they were dealing with an "unknown white powder with characteristics we were unaware of."

Chief Inspector Steve Siddall said: "The location of the incident was such that it was on main traffic routes.

"Whilst keeping the level of disruption caused to a minimum was uppermost in our minds, our main concern had to be public safety."

One Barry worker was caught up in the chaos as she headed for her Cardiff home. She said: "I left my office in Barry at about 5.15pm but I arrived at my home in Splott at 7.30pm. The journey normally takes me around 20 minutes, but on Tuesday it took me more than two hours.

"The police weren"t letting cars down Cardiff Road so I had to go home via the country lanes.

"All the roads out of Barry were jam-packed. It was absolute chaos."

But she added: "I must praise the people of Barry, everyone was in a good mood and there were no raised tempers.

"People were even chatting to drivers of cars going in the opposite direction and advising them of the best route to take."

Another Barry worker who had difficulty getting from work to her home in Penarth said: "When I got to Cardiff Road, a police car was blocking the route, so like everyone else I turned around and went back into Cadoxton.

"I ended up driving towards Wenvoe then through St Andrew"s where the traffic was solid in the lanes, and into Dinas Powys.

"Just getting into Dinas Powys took ages because there is a single lane part of the road, and the priority was for the cars coming out of the village.

"Hundreds of cars must have passed me in the other direction before I could get through."

Since the incident, it has emerged that the white powder, which was on fire, was a waste material from Dow Corning. It was being transported to an off-site waste facility when the incident occurred. Firefighters were called to the scene from Ely, Barry and Penarth and a special unit from Abercarn was also present.

A Dow Corning spokesman said: "We realise that the decision by police to close the road caused considerable traffic disruption, but we do appreciate that they were acting in the best interests of all concerned.

"At present we are not able to say how this material came to be on the road but we have already begun taking actions to understand when and how this happened."

The police said that local residents were not told to stay indoors, as they didn"t feel this was necessary.

But customers of McDonald"s on Cardiff Road were evacuated from the fast-food premises.