A Carlisle school was forced to delay the start of a GCSE exam yesterday as the city ground to a standstill during the morning rush.

Huge tailbacks stretched from Eden Bridge up to the Kingstown roundabout, as Cumbria County Council conducted its latest traffic survey.

Parents were late dropping their children at nursery, commuters reportedly missed trains and one woman was unable to attend a medical appointment in the city.

The authority was subsequently forced to apologise for the problems caused, with motorists reported being delayed for up to 50 minutes.

Surveys have been taking place all week, in areas including Warwick Road, Dalston Road and London Road.

Pupils heading to Trinity School were forced to complete part of their journey on foot, in a bid to ensure they made it in time for their physics exam.

But Sheila Johnston, the school’s co-headteacher, told the News & Star the teenagers were still able to take part, albeit after a delayed start.

“It [the traffic survey] wasn’t something we’d been made aware

of,” she said.

“A lot of our catchment comes from north of the river. We had pupils sitting a GCSE physics exam and so we had to hold back the start time for a little while.”

Mrs Johnston said that staff had been preparing to hold a final revision session ahead of the examination.

“Unfortunately quite a few of them weren’t able to make it,” she added.

Michelle Thompson, whose daughter was sitting the exam, said: “She jumped out of the car at Stanwix traffic lights as we had been sat in the car since 7.55am, and it was now 8.20am.

“I was sat in traffic for a further 15 minutes before getting to work.”

A spokesman for Cumbria County Council said that Trinity School was the only one in Carlisle to have been affected by the survey, which involves stopping drivers and asking them to volunteer to answer questions about their journeys.

Each survey site is operated in one direction, on one day only, with interviews expected to take between two and three minutes.

On social media yesterday lunchtime, the authority said: “Cumbria County Council is aware of the traffic congestion this morning.

“A broken down vehicle and inclement weather also contributed to delays. The council wishes to apologise to road users for the inconvenience this has caused.

“Officers are on site now to monitor the flow of traffic, and will temporarily suspend the surveys as and when required to ease congestion throughout the day.

“The surveys are vital to gather data which helps inform key decisions around improving the highways network throughout the city and surrounding area.”

Jane Hegedus missed her osteopath appointment due to the severity of the tailbacks – she has since managed to rearrange it.

“I live behind the Gosling Bridge and was trying to get to Warwick Square,” she said. “Usually it’d only take me five to 10 minutes.

“I left at about 8.10am. By 8.45am I’d only got as far as the little Sainsbury’s in Stanwix. I turned round, come home and phoned the osteopath to say what’d happened.

“I heard nothing on the radio about it. I didn’t know what the problem was until the osteopath told me. I thought because it was raining, there might have been more parents driving their children to school.”