Traffic officers will help police during jams and accidents

Uniformed civilian Highways Agency Traffic Officers (HATO) work with the police to keep traffic moving.

Patrols are already operating on the M5 in the Avon and Somerset and Gloucestershire police areas.

The team, supported by a 24-hour regional control centre in Avonmouth, will help free police resources to concentrate on tackling crime.

The control centre has been sending traffic officers to an average of 50 incidents a day since the Secretary of State for Transport, Alistair Darling, launched the service in the region last December.

The Highways Agency has invested �9.3m in setting up the new service in the South West.

By this summer, the control centre will be headquarters to 29 control room staff and 132 traffic officers who will monitor and patrol 209 miles of motorways across Avon and Somerset, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Devon.