A NEW traffic system linking Darwen with Blackburn has been labelled as 'chaotic' by a local businessman.

Thomas Patrick McDonald says it took him 45 minutes to drive a journey which usually takes just a couple of minutes.

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"It's only about a mile and a half and it took me 45 minutes," he said. "This was at 10.30 in the morning, not even peak hours.

"I've heard that there are queues all the way back to the motorway too. Four lanes have gone into one lane. It's absolute chaos."

The new road system in the Ewood area opened on Monday morning as part of the £40 million Pennine Reach public transport improvement scheme.

"It's a main artery from Darwen to Blackburn. My main worry is that at peak time it's going to be stationary," he said, from his PM Entertainments business in Blackburn.

Councillor Phil Riley, Blackburn with Darwen Council’s Executive Member for Regeneration, said: “The traffic flow (on Monday) has been monitored and the police were on site for further monitoring. We are aware of some delays later in the morning as motorists navigated the new road system and this is common with new road layouts."

Mike Damms, chief executive of East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, said he hadn't been to the Ewood area this week so had no first-hand experience of the problems.

He added: "Whatever we have seen so far in the terms of road improvements have all worked remarkably well. The whole logic of the Pennine Reach is that the whole volume of traffic is going to keep going up and you can obviously get more people on a bus than in a car. I'm surprised (there's a problem in Ewood) as that was not the intention."

Last month the main contractors - Bury-based Thomas Barnes - on Blackburn’s much-delayed new £4.7 million bus station were sacked by the council

The council is looking for a replacement contractor.