MOTORISTS faced significant delays after part of a busy junction was shut for the majority of the day for a roads policing operation.

Specialist Essex Police officers were visible from before 8am yesterday on the roundabout close to the sliproad from the A12 leading into Stanway from the London-bound carriageway.

Marked police cars -including the force's commercial vehicle unit - and undercover vehicles were parked on the road.

But as part of the initiative - which usually involved officers checking for roads offences such as using a mobile phone at the wheel or not wearing a seatbelt along with ANPR cameras to track uninsured and wanted vehicles - the right hand lane of Essex Yeomanry Way was shut off for police to speak to drivers.

But motorists who were driving legally could not travel directly to the Sainsbury’s supermarket or the Tollgate shopping centre nearby.

Slow traffic was reported for roughly two miles on the A12 as a result of the closure as tailbacks built up.

Long queues were forming on the left lane of the trunk road as drivers queued to get into Stanway, while motorists in the middle lane slowed down in a bid to find a gap to shuttle across.

A broken down car on the slip road also added to the delays at roughly 11am.