THE brother of a Valleys woman was left devastated when he missed his sister's cremation service after getting held up in road works.

Len Price, 69, and around fifty members of his family were 20 minutes late for his sister Maureen Green’s remembrance service at Gwent Crematorium on Thursday, after spending 35 minutes in half-mile queue of traffic on Hafodyrynys Road.

Mourners were making their way to the crematorium from the funeral in Zion Chapel, Llanhilleth, when they hit two sets of road works between the Swfrydd junction and the Pontypool roundabout.

After waiting around ten minutes the funeral director got out of the hearse and approached a construction worker controlling the traffic flow from both directions due a closed lane, who allowed the hearse and funeral cars through.

But other members of the family who were following behind were left waiting another 20 minutes before being let through.

Mr Price, of Newbridge, said the family were left traumatised after missing the service and were particularly enraged because nobody appeared to be working on the site.

He said: “All the family was absolutely appalled, everybody was disgusted. I cannot for the life of me understand why they couldn’t organise it better.”

“I feel owe it to my sister to make a complaint, she was badly let down.”

Funeral director Malcolm Dean, of Phillip Tom and Sons, in Risca, said the workman he spoke to was very helpful and let them through, but the delay did make them late for the service.

A spokesman for Caerphilly council said he authority was aware of the incident and had raised the matter with its contractors.

He added: “We would like to apologies to those affected for the inconvenience caused."

Mr Price's 73-year-old sister from Aberbeeg had died on April 30 after a long illness.