Weak bridge stops council gritters

5:37pm Friday 23rd November 2007

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A WEAK bridge has stopped gritting trucks accessing a rural road running between Colne and Barrowford.

Red Lane, a well-used short cut, has been removed from the gritting schedule because Lancashire County Council's 16.5 tonne trucks cannot go over it for safety reasons.

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The council says the old railway bridge was found to be unsafe in October and has had a three tonne weight-restriction placed on it.

County councillor Mike Calvert said: "The rail company needs to repair this bridge. Our gritting fleet cannot use it because it is too weak. The trucks are too big to manoeuvre up to the bridge to turn round and they can't reverse up it.

"The road is used as a rat-run, it's badly lit, narrow and dangerous. Cars are often seen driving up it at excessive speeds.

"This will be made much worse if the roads are not gritted."

Andrew Wilson, of Foulridge Parish Council said: "The road takes a large volume of traffic. They've gritted before and it's not like the trucks have shrunk."

The county council says it will be placing four road signs - one at each end of Red Lane - and two at various points on the road, to warn drivers about ice and snow.

A Lancashire County Council spokesman denied the gritting cuts have anything to do with saving cash and said they simply could not put lives at risk.

Network Railway said that they were not responsible for the bridge as the railway was no longer in use. It comes under the control of British Rail Board Residual, whichtook over responsibility for non-operational assets when railways were privatised, which is managed by the Department for Transport.