SANDWELL Council officers have been sent back to the drawing board over a traffic jam-busting scheme costing almost £13 million - after they tried to overrule the wishes of motorists.

There will now be a second public consultation to again seek the views of local residents about the best way to improve Birchley island, next to the M5's Junction 2 at Oldbury.

The council’s cabinet ordered officers to look again at their recommendations, which had rejected the wishes expressed by the public.

The public vote was for “Option D” out of four suggestions, costing £12.9 million, which would provide a similar layout to Burnt Tree on the Dudley-Sandwell border by widening links to and from the motorway junction to four lanes in each direction.

But council officers had recommended an alternative called “Option B”, described as a two-way “hamburger” island, costing £12.7 million, which would take Wolverhampton Road traffic straight across the junction.

Their recommendation was criticised last week by UKIP MEP Bill Etheridge, who said it was a “fruitless exercise” and an “absolute waste of taxpayers’ money to ask for the public views and then “ignore” them.

And the cabinet meeting, on Wednesday last week, decided to put off a decision for more work by the council officers.

Cabinet member for jobs and economy Councillor Ian Jones said: “The cabinet deferred a decision pending further investigation and consultation.

“We need to consider more technical data and we want to look at why the public says one thing and the officers another.

”We need to take the views of the travelling public and local residents in the weight they were given.

“The original public consultation did not cost a great deal - £554 – and there will now be another similar consultation because we need to get our approvals right.”

Fifty per cent of the 779 people who filled in questionnaires and a further 350 comments posted on Facebook voted for “Option D”, compared to 36 per cent for the council officers’ choice.

The council aims to put forward a business case for whichever option is finally chosen in a bid to win funding from the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership to improve the island, used by around 92,000 drivers a day.

The cost of the consultation comes out of £600,000 set aside for “detailed modelling plans” if the scheme goes ahead.