Holiday getaway delayed by accidents

Travellers heading off to enjoy the bank holiday weekend were hampered yesterday by a series of accidents on major roads.

One of the most disruptive hold-ups was on the M25 in Surrey, which delayed Gatwick airport-bound holidaymakers who were among the 1.9 million Britons flying abroad over the weekend.

Another serious accident led to the westbound closure of a section of the M58 near Skelmersdale in Lancashire.

Concerns about the safety of a man on the Avon Bridge led to a mid-afternoon closure of the M5 northbound between Junctions 21 and 18 near Bristol.

And two lanes of the M62 were closed in Greater Manchester, while there was also heavy traffic reported on the northern part of the M25, the A303 near Stonehenge in Wiltshire, the M23 in Surrey and the M4 in Berkshire.

With forecasters predicting that temperatures could reach 25 degrees Celsius in London on Bank Holiday Monday, many people headed for the numerous music festivals taking place over the weekend, including the popular Reading festival in Berkshire.

Motoring groups warned that major routes would remain busy over the weekend, while train travellers were having to contend with a number of rail engineering works, including 42 on Sunday alone.

This is resulting in a number of trains being replaced by buses, although train companies are operating 3,500 more trains than last August bank holiday, as well as replacing 15% fewer train services with bus services.

Today was the busiest day for bank holiday flight departures, with 420,000 due to fly over the weekend (Friday to Monday) from Heathrow airport and 245,000 from Gatwick.

Top destinations for those getting away were Majorca and Ibiza, mainland Spain, Turkey, Portugal and the Greek islands. Top city-break destinations were New York, Amsterdam, Dublin and Rome.

Gatwick-bound holidaymakers found themselves struggling through the jams that built up after a serious accident involving a motorcyclist closed the anti-clockwise section of the M25 between junction 5 near Sevenoaks in Kent and junction 6 near Caterham in Surrey.

It was the third major incident on the 119-mile-long M25 - the UK's busiest motorway - in three days, following junction closures in Surrey last night and a closure in both directions on a two-junction section near Heathrow on Wednesday.

Holidaymakers also flocked to seaports, while one lucky traveller - 35-year-old graphic designer David Kemp - yesterday became the 100 millionth passenger to travel with Channel Tunnel high-speed rail company Eurostar.

Arriving at St Pancras station in London with his family for a journey to Paris, Mr Kemp, from Highgate in north London, was given one year's free travel on Eurostar.

Half a million people were heading abroad by ferry or by Eurostar over the weekend, with the port of Dover reporting a 16 per cent increase in car traffic this bank holiday compared with the same period last year.

Despite windy conditions across the country, it was considered hot enough for a giant ice lolly to be given to rhinos, coatis and camels at Marwell Zoo in Hampshire. MeteoGroup, the Press Association's weather division, said the windy conditions would carry on tomorrow, with England being mainly dry and sunny and Scotland and Wales getting showers.

Sunday is expected to be increasingly cloudy across the UK with outbreaks of rain and drizzle. The clouds should break across England on Monday, leaving warm spells of sunshine.

But Monday could be cloudy in Scotland and Wales, with possibly heavy rain in places.