MOTORISTS were left annoyed and frustrated yesterday when a major motorway slip road was completely closed off - for no apparent reason.

Hundreds of drivers were left queuing for up to five miles westbound along the M27 when highways chiefs decided to close off one lane of the road that leads onto the M271 and into Southampton.

Commuters couldn't see any valid reason why the authorities shut the sliproad, which is used by thousands of vehicles including lorries accessing the docks.

Drivers were forced to queue for traffic lights instead of using the left hand lane, which normally runs straight onto the M271.

However, highways bosses say they had to close part of the road for safety reasons - as minor maintenance work was being carried out on a small stretch of the central reservation of the M271.

A spokesman told the Daily Echo: "They were doing some central reservation matrix work and the road was closed off for safety reasons."

Motorist Mark Farnham, who uses the route every day to travel to work in Southampton from Hook, said: "All I could see was that one lane was closed off. But lots of motorists were leaving it to the last minute to cut across, which made the hold-ups even worse."

He added: "It was really frustrating sitting there not knowing what was going on.

"Even when I did get on to the M271, there didn't seem to be any reason for the hold up."

Rachel Jones, of Fareham, said: "It was really annoying.

"It made me late for work. I don't know what it was about but it seemed totally pointless."

The lane was closed for about three hours and reopened shortly after 12.20pm.