DRIVERS either love it or loathe it but Swindon's infamous Magic Roundabout could soon make an appearance in France.

A delegation of eight politicians and engineers from Brest City Council are making the special trip to Swindon to consider taking the layout of our zany traffic island back to Brittany.

They will be given a grand tour of the roundabout with officials from Swindon Borough Council.

And, if they like what they see, Brest will soon have its very own rond point magique.

The technicalities of the unique road system will be translated for the Breton VIPs by Adrian Dean, the council's transport management and road safety group leader.

He said: "They have a similar situation in Brest with a number of roads coming together.

"They have heard of our Magic Roundabout and they think our solution might be appropriate for them."

The Magic Roundabout fittingly named after the 1960s/70s French children's TV favourite of the same name was installed 30 years ago as an experiment.

The large grass island that was in the middle of a single roundabout was dug up and the bewildering series of six roundabouts created.

Mr Dean added: "It was an innovative way of solving what was quite a large traffic problem and has performed well over the last 30 years.

"It works on the principle of multi-lane entrances which are designed to be negotiated at slow speed.

"The design is good for capacity in that a lot of traffic can go through it. When the M4 was closed in one direction last week I went out on to the Magic Roundabout at 6pm and, though there was quite a queue, the roundabout was coping with it."

Mr Dean said because of the slow speed at which drivers negotiate the roundabout, accidents have been within "acceptable" levels.

"The rule is to look for traffic from your right, but it is advisable to look left and right as it is when negotiating a one-way street because there is always the possibility of somebody going the wrong way," he said.

The Magic Roundabout is one of 160 circular junctions in Swindon and Mr Dean says he is keen to ask the French visitors how the town's landmark junction came to their attention.

The Brest politicians and engineers were unavailable for comment last night they were in a meeting prior to their trip to Swindon tomorrow.