MORE than 3.5million vehicles a year are using East Lancashire's notorious Grane Road - and large parts remain just like a B-road, residents claimed today.

Members of Grane Residents' Association and Belthorn Residents' Association said the information, based on Lancashire County Council figures, backed their claims that plans to improve safety on the hilltop road between Blackburn and Haslingden were "minimalist, skimpy, unsatisfactory and just not good enough".

But they praised the Lancashire Evening Telegraph for the Stop the Carnage campaign, which has now been backed up by a series of posters in the area, and urged local people to get involved. The council proposals, which include traffic calming measures close to the Grey Mare pub and the slip road leading to Belthorn, are currently at the consultation stage and are not expected to be in place before the New Year.

But Grane Residents Association chairman Tim Barlow, who lives in Grane Road, Haslingden, said many measures agreed during a meeting between residents and Hyndburn Borough Council, Rossendale Borough Council and Lancashire County Council in March were not included in the scheme.

He told a meeting of the groups last night that £30,000 had been promised and that traffic on the road was increasing all the time.

Mr Barlow said: "Almost 10,000 vehicles are using Grane Road in the peak period between 7am and 7pm every day which breaks down to 828 every hour, 14 a minute or one every four seconds for 12 hours a day.

"Taking those calculations into consideration we are looking at more than 3.5million vehicles on this road each year and that is a conservative estimate.

"The road just isn't up to it." The Grane Road was a B-class road for many years before being upgraded recently. Residents say the levels of traffic have increased dramatically since the opening of the M65 extension.

The residents want to see a mini-roundabout at the junction of Holcombe Road and Grane Road, close to the Holden Arms pub, Haslingden, reduced speed limits and more double white lines.

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