Motorists in Carlisle face another day of chaos on the roads today.

All week drivers have been faced with long tailbacks, and in some cases gridlock, due to work simultaneously taking place in Warwick Road and London Road as well as other areas of the city including Currock and Upperby.

Virgin Media engineers are scheduled to complete their work in London Road by 7pm tonight, but have warned it could be delayed as resurfacing work is required and is weather-dependent.

A spokeswoman for the company insisted its works were "fully-coordinated" with Cumbria Highways to take place this week.

She said: "Works are being carried out under temporary traffic control.

"In the daytime traffic lights are manually operated as instructed by the council in order to ease congestion."

The temporary traffic lights are due to be removed as soon as work is completed.

Meanwhile Northern Gas Networks, which is undertaking work in Warwick Road, is expected to have completed its project by Monday. These works were postponed during the floods and consequent road and bridge closures.

Cumbria County Council said it understands the frustrations of road users at the disruption caused.

While operators of gas, electricity, water and telecoms have to notify they council, they have legal rights to install and maintain their equipment without specific consent or permission from the authority.

A spokesman said: "We attempt to coordinate such roadworks alongside our own programmes of repairs to try to minimise disruption.

"Council interventions routinely prevent overlapping or simultaneous works and consequent traffic problems, however the council has no powers to prevent works taking place.

"The council would like to apologise for the inconvenience that travel disruption inevitably brings, however enhancing public services and utilities remains an important part of improving the city’s infrastructure."

Carlisle-based driving instructor Rod Anderson yesterday revealed he was forced to work extra hours because of the roadworks making him late for lessons.

"I'm absolutely fed up with what's happening," he said. "I can't understand how they are allowing so many roadworks on important roads all to happen at the same time.

"Do they really see what they're allowing to happen? It's dreadful. I've been an instructor for 38 years and I've seen the highways department do some appalling things over the years and I can't understand how these fellas keep their jobs."

It took him 40 minutes to get from Kingstown across the city to his next pupil who lives near B&Q in London Road.

Mr Anderson was angered that where temporary traffic lights had been installed near Halfords, in London Road, he had not seen anyone working there. He added that Warwick Road has become a huge square of people trying to beat the system.