Lidlington level crossing probe after road closure wrongly lifted

Traffic was allowed to cross the Marston Road level crossing near Lidlington despite it being faulty

An investigation is under way to look at how traffic was allowed to cross a faulty railway level crossing after a road closure was removed.

Traffic had been stopped from crossing the Bedford to Bletchley Line at the Marston Road crossing near Lidlington in Bedfordshire for several weeks.

Central Bedfordshire Council said a Highway Services team "inadvertently removed" the closure on 18 May.

It is investigating what "allowed such a serious event to occur", it said.

The BBC understands the closure was reinstated "several hours later".

The authority said the closure had been in place on Marston Road between Lidlington and Marston Morteyene to protect the public at the site of a faulty Network Rail level crossing.

It added that "immediate steps" had been taken to ensure that any instructions relating to work affecting Network Rail's infrastructure, are "subject to increased oversight".

A spokesman said: "[The council] takes safety extremely seriously and is undertaking a detailed investigation, with our Term Maintenance Contractor (TMC), to determine where there was a failure in processes that allowed such a serious event to occur.

"We are in contact with Network Rail and local ward members, who are being kept up to date.

"Once concluded, appropriate relevant and permanent changes can be made to processes and procedures to ensure that the lessons learned are translated to improvements in how we undertake our work on the highway network."