RESIDENTS living near a Blackburn industrial estate have sent a petition to council bosses complaining about air quality, noise and road safety in their neighbourhood.

People who live in the Blackamoor area of Higher Croft, say traffic using Roman Road Industrial Estate, has made crossing a busy four-way junction ‘a life-threatening experience’.

MORE TOP STORIES:

Blackburn with Darwen Council will discuss the concerns at a meeting of its executive board on Thursday.

The petition, which has 53 signatures, highlights safety issues around the junction of Roman Road with Stopes Brow and Blackamoor Road.

It calls for a pedestrian crossing to be installed to stem the flow of traffic from all four directions, and questions why heavy goods vehicles are allowed to operate 24 hours a day and at weekends.

The petition reads: “There have been incidents where pedestrians have been hit crossing the junction and we believe it is just a matter of time before someone will suffer a bad injury, especially with the increase in traffic.

“Mr Jack Straw chaired a couple of meetings several years ago when the Blackamoor junction was one of the points discussed and we were promised that something would be done, but nothing has happened.”

The petition, addressed to Brian Bailey, the council’s director of regeneration, also claims that noise pollution is ‘a much bigger problem than in 2012’ and says air quality has also declined in the same period.

It states: “Despite having a possible air quality issue, it took five years before a consultation meeting was arranged at Blackburn Library by the public protection service, with three options offered on how to reduce the poor air quality.

“We believe, that after seeing those options, not one of them would make the slightest difference in reducing the air quality issue.”

Councillors will note the petition at a meeting in Blackburn Town Hall, but A report by Mr Bailey said monitoring results ‘do not suggest that the air quality has universally deteriorated’ since 2012, nor did accident records for the junction support the view that it is unsafe for pedestrians.

One injury has been recorded from five incidents in the past five years.

The report says the authority has no legal power to deal with noise or vibration from road traffic.

In relation to noise pollution, Mr Bailey adds in the report: “It should be noted that the local authority has no legal power to deal with noise or vibration from road traffic.”