WORCESTER MP Robin Walker will be pressing transport ministers to make sure that a repeat of the M5 motorway fiasco on Friday does not happen again.

He will also be looking into the possibility of setting up a compensation scheme, so that road travellers can claim in the same way that rail users can.

Thousands of travellers were trapped, some for up to ten hours, after a broken-down crane meant that maintenance work which should have finished early that morning stretched on into the afternoon.

Mr Walker said: "I spent a long time talking to Highways England on Saturday and received a thorough briefing on what had bone wrong.

"Essentially they had the wrong records for the gantry they had to move, and it was a lot heavier than they were expecting.

"This week I hope to raise the matter in Parliament, if there is a transport question, and if not I will raise it with the ministers directly. We must take measures to ensure this does not happen again.

"I also want to look at ways of setting up a system so drivers can claim compensation if it does happen again. I'm aware there might be difficulties with people proving that they were where they say they were. It's not like the railways, where the passengers have tickets to prove their claim. But it's something that should be looked at."

Worcester News readers are also demanding an explanation. Commenting on the Worcester News website, Lowlybarnacle said:

"Losing money as a result of failure (which is what happens in the private sector) is the only lesson that may have an impact on Highways England who have admitted their error."

Sue Russell said: "Why on earth were drivers allowed to drive onto a section of motorway that was closed? Traffic should never have been allowed on it, but diverted off at the junction BEFORE the closed section."

Fairymavis said: "Having spent seven and half hours stuck between junctions six and five, I want to know why the police were not managing the traffic flow? They allowed the traffic lights on the junction to manage the traffic. As I know from driving this route every week day the lights are pretty quick to change. It needed a police presence to move the traffic more quickly off the motorway."

On Facebook, Rob Barnwell said: "Where's the contingency plan? If there is one it didn't work. My wife was stuck in the grid lock for five hours, she's lost a day's work! This happens all too often and it would be quite simple to implement a reverse run of the carriageway to at least get people off the motorway!!"

Natalie Collison said: "You think as it's highways job to know how to handle all motorway situations that they would have had this sorted within two hours. They would have if this was Germany or another country."

Jus Lastin Morgan said: "I got on j6 of m5 at 615am and was stuck on it till around 10:30am, can't understand if they knew there was problems why they not shut the slip roads so we couldn't have got on then at least we could have found alternative routes but they didn't give us a choice."

But readers also noted how calm drivers remained despite being trapped for hours. Fairymavis said: "What was amazing was the attitude of the drivers. They were polite and allowed lane changes with courtesy there was no angry exchanges just shrugs and wry smiles."