FRENCH officials came to Swindon to see if the Magic Roundabout could solve their traffic problems and left with a souvenir photograph of their visit.

A group of eight politicians and engineers from Brest City Council were taken to the top of Swindon Central Fire Station so they had an excellent view of how the roundabout worked.

Patrick Morlier, Jean-Luc Polard, Jacqueline Here, Philippe Rybstel, Agnes Le Gleau, Daniel Derrien, Jean-Michel Le Matayer and Joel Labat were given a guided tour by Adrian Dean, group leader for traffic management at Swindon Council.

And at the end of their visit they were each given a framed colour picture of the roundabout, courtesy of the Evening Advertiser, so they can sit at home and study the roundabout at leisure.

Mr Dean explained to them the advantages of the multi-mini roundabout and also acted as translator.

He said: "They got a good impression of it. I explained how drivers approach it quite slowly, which allows them to develop a repartee with other drivers."

He added Swindon Council officials may be invited to Brest so more traffic management solutions can be shared.

M Morlier, the director of the community and urban department at Brest City Council, said the group was initially a little dazed with cars whizzing around six separate roundabouts.

He said: "When we arrived we were a little surprised and we didn't understand it, but now we can see it is working really well.

"We are hoping to do something similar in Brest because we have a lot of traffic at a crossroads near a regional hospital.

"Adrian explained that it copes with 100,000 cars a day. The crossroads in Brest has 50,000 cars going through a day so if the design can cope with more cars it could be a good solution for us."

M Polard is the elected head of Brest City Council and said he was not sure whether the system would work in Brest because French driving culture is very different from the British.

"The drivers here, they respect the priorities, they stop for pedestrians and the French don't," he said.

"We think it could be possible but the French would have to learn to respect other drivers."

M Polard said it was his first visit to Swindon but he liked the town.

"It's a pretty town. We visited the town centre, the old rail works and it is very nice. Brest is less pretty although the population is the same."