THE 600 yard 'missing link' in a £40million road and public transport improvement scheme will finally be built next year.

A price war over a tiny parcel of land last year left Blackburn with a £1million ‘road to nowhere’.

The dispute with supermarket giant Tesco was resolved last year but it has taken Blackburn with Darwen Council until now to schedule the completion of the new highway along the back of Burnley Road.

The new road will become the main way into town from Rishton, bypassing Burnley Road.

MORE TOP STORIES:

Cllr Phil Riley, borough regeneration boss, said construction of the missing section would start next Spring and take a maximum of six months.

The building of the £4.8million Furthergate Link Road, part of the £40million Pennine Reach scheme, was halted in January 2016 as Blackburn with Darwen Council haggled with Tesco over the cost of the small piece of land off Gorse Street.

It left a 500 yard section of road from the Red Lion roundabout near the M65 Junction 6 towards Tesco’s Hill Street superstore with no end, while traffic off Bottomgate and Accrington Road had to be rerouted onto Burnley Road.

The issue echoed the Wainwright Bridge saga, dubbed the ‘bridge to nowhere’, with the road linking to it only completed in February last year a decade late.

Cllr Derek Hardman, Conservative group regeneration spokesman, welcomed news that the missing bit of road was finally going ahead.

He backed small businesses at the bottom of Burnley Road in their call for signs on the Red Lion roundabout to their parade of shops to ensure they did not lose custom because of the changes.

Farzana Kazi, of Whitebirk News, said: "I fear we will lose vital passing trade.

"We lost a lot of customers when Gorse Street was closed off because of roadworks last year."

Helene Knott, from Cod's Gift Chippy, said: "This could be really bad news.

"We could lose a lot of passing trade.

"The council needs to put signs to our businesses on the roundabout so motorists know we are here.

"They also need to improve parking."

The £2million for the final section was secured in March from the government's growth deal through the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership.

Cllr Riley said: "We are now ready to start work next Spring and it should take six months at most to complete.

"It's only a small section of road, about 600 yards, and the connections at either end are already built.

"We are in the process of completing a land swap with Tesco but the £2million from the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership covers all eventualities.

"It cost more to do this section than we expected as we could not roll it into the main contract and there has been a lot of process getting everything ready for work to start.

"We are happy to talk to the business in Burnley Road to ensure there are no negative consequences from the completion of the new road.

"There should be little disruption on Red Lion roundabout, just new white lines repainted and traffic signal changes."

Cllr Hardman said: "I welcome the news that this key road will finally be completed but the whole process has been a shambles.

"The council should have assembled the land package before starting rather than leave Blackburn with another 'Road to Nowhere'.

"It must also ensure there are proper signs to the Burnley Road shops so they do not lose trade."

The Pennine Reach scheme aims to speed traffic, especially buses, between Darwen, Blackburn and Hyndburn.