'Carnage' at the Trafford Centre as cars trapped

Hundreds of shoppers were stuck at the Trafford Centre for hours on Monday after traffic became gridlocked around its car parks.

Some visitors were unable to get their vehicles out of their parking spaces for hours at a time as the post Christmas sales rush combined with incidents on the motorway network to cause major delays.

Dan Thomas, 37, told the BBC he was stuck for more than four hours with his two children and pregnant partner after driving from Warrington to see a film.

A spokesperson for the Trafford Centre said it had advertised throughout the day that car parks were full and had deployed traffic teams to try and get vehicles moving.

Mr Thomas got back into his vehicle at 15:45 GMT with his family after travelling from Warrington to watch Wicked 2 at the Odeon cinema.

However the family did not manage to get off the car-park until around 20:30 - making his partner, Charlotte, late for her 18:00 shift as a nurse.

"We went for the film, grabbed some food at Pizza Express afterwards and then walked out to the car to see red lights everywhere basically," Mr Thomas said.

"Honestly I just thought it was just going to be slow moving. You expect the car park to be somewhat busy but I didn't expect it that busy.

"We got into the car, stuck my reversing lights on and just waited and nothing moved for a good 20 minutes, half hour."

Mr Thomas said he then got out of the vehicle, in the upper floor of the Trafford Centre's Regency car-park, and spoke to the driver immediately behind his vehicle only to find he had been stuck there for almost two hours.

He said he heard a tannoy announcement referring to a problem on the M60 motorway and urging people to remain inside for as long as possible.

Engineer Mr Thomas said the experience had put him off driving to the Trafford Centre in future.

"To be honest since they cut half the car park of the Orient down to put that fun fair in I've always been semi reluctant to drive all the way into the Trafford Centre anyway because I just find the park in an absolute nightmare there," he said.

"This just hammered that home on any sort of weekend or busy period that I'm less likely to."

Other shoppers shared their experiences on social media on Monday.

One shopper who had been trapped for two hours wrote on X: "Carnage and a really depressing day, really disappointed with the Trafford Centre and won't be going back."

Another posted: "Wouldn't even bother trying to get in or out the Trafford Centre at this point, third hour sat here, appalling traffic management.

"Hope you're not expecting me to pay a parking fine."

A spokesperson for the Trafford Centre thanked vistitor's for their patience.

"With a busy day at the centre and nearby retail parks, combined with a vehicle breakdown at Junction 9, roads in and out of the centre are more congested than usual," they said.

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