Traffic jams on Grane Road are making life unbearable in Belthorn (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Traffic jams on Grane Road are making life unbearable in Belthorn

12:20pm Friday 14th September 2012 in News By Emma Cruces, Reporter

INCREASING congestion at a ‘nightmare’ motorway junction is becoming ‘unbearable’, according to residents.

Roadworks and increased back-to-school traffic has made Grane Road around Belthorn ‘worse than ever’ according to fed up motorists.

Residents also claim queue jumping along Belthorn Road is also causing ‘near misses’ at the primary school.

Belthorn resident John Creasey said he uses the roundabout at the motorway junction every day to turn left from the Grane Road on to the M65.

He said travelling the few hundred yards from his Belthorn Road home to the junction now takes half an hour.

He said: “Without doubt, the lights make it unbearable. The sequence only lets a few cars out from the Grane Road direction, if you’re lucky. Usually there is a queue blocking you. This is making people queue jump through the village, causing near misses at the school.

“They either need to change the light sequence or put in a left hand turn onto the motorway. But they won’t hear of anything which costs money.”

County Councillor Peter Britcliffe is leading the residents’ campaign.

He said: “This has gone on for far too long. Blackburn and Lancashire Councils must get together again and look at these issues.

“I have also asked the police to enforce the 20mph zone. Motorists have to learn that speed will not be tolerated in the village.”

LCC highways manager Oliver Starkey said: “We’re keen to address people’s concerns and have commissioned a joint study into the issue with Blackburn with Darwen Council and the Highways Agency.

“While Belthorn is in Lancashire, the motorway roundabout is in Blackburn with Darwen and the Highways Agency is responsible for the motorway network, so all parties need to be involved. We’ll be meeting them again in the next few weeks to discuss the results of the study.”

Coun Dave Harling, who oversees Blackburn with Darwen’s roads, said: “It’s down to a set of unique events. Both Junction 4 and Junction 3 have roadworks at the moment, so everyone is utilising Junction 5. We expect conditions to improve in a few weeks when roadworks will be complete.

“We are also in discussions with the Highways Agency and Lancashire County Council over short term improvements here. However, none of these improvements would assist the wider roadworks being experienced at the moment.”