A FAULTY traffic light and a stubborn bus driver brought chaos to the roads of central Winchester.

The driver refused to take his Stagecoach vehicle through the light which was stuck on red.

For more than 30 minutes he refused to move as at least ten other buses and taxis queued up behind him by the lights at the junction of St Georges Street and Upper Brook Street.

The queue of buses stretched back down St Georges Street, into Middle Brook Street and through to the High Street, delaying the journeys of scores of passengers.

Bystanders said drivers, some fellow Stagecoach employees, implored him to move but he refused in a 30-minute stand-off yesterday from about noon.

He declined suggestions to get out of the driver's seat and let another driver take the single-decker through the light.

One eyewitness, who did not want to be named, said: "I know you are not supposed to go through a red light. But you have to use your common sense don't you? It was farcical."

Stagecoach operations manager Nigel Deacon came up to the junction from the company depot at Bar End to speak to the driver, who has not been named.

The lights were fixed but later went wrong again. Mr Deacon spent time waving the buses through himself.

Mr Deacon said: "He wasn't comfortable going through the red, which is fair enough. It is difficult to instruct someone to go through a red light. If he had gone and someone had come round the corner and there had been an accident, the police would have been involved."

He said no action would be taken against the driver. "We will have a quiet chat with him but we won't go overboard."

Stagecoach has approached the county council to ask it to sort out the lights.