A FOUR-car accident has caused queues on the Bournemouth-bound Spur Road this morning, adding to the delays caused by the council's clean up operation.

The collision was reported at 11am on the A338 between the Blackwater and Cooper Dean junctions, near the ‘Welcome to Bournemouth’ sign.

Several occupants of the vehicles were said to be badly shaken and paramedics were at the scene, but it is not thought there were any injuries.

The vehicles involved were a grey Volkswagen Golf registered to a man from St Ives, a silver BMW from a company in Birmingham, a white Fiat Punto registered to a woman in Verwood and the red Peugeot 106 of a man from Bournemouth.

The accident has since been cleared but there are now long delays southbound due to the council's clean-up operation.

Last night thousands were caught up in traffic queues after a driver decided to stop his car in the non-roadworks lane of the northbound carriageway, meaning traffic had to be diverted around him  and into the works lane.

That delayed the removal of the cones, which meant they were still in place as rush hour traffic started to leave town. 

A spokesman for Bournemouth council said: "The delays were not as a result of the work we are carrying out. As we began to remove the cones from the northbound carriageway at around 3.30 an elderly driver decided to stop his car in the live lane, so we had to divert traffic around him and into the works area.

"This of course delayed the removal of the cones and also required Police attendance, all of which took 30-45 mins. All of the other incidents were unrelated to this and just coincidental."