COUNTY Council engineers have cleared blocked drains and gullies on a busy road to a hospital after a Labour councillor condemned the state of the carriageway.

St Oswald's ward's Cllr Glen Harrison has put down a motion on the issue for Thursday's (tonight's for print on Thursday) full meeting of Hyndburn Council.

The Labour candidate for Oswaldtwistle division in May's Lancashire County Council elections said it was just one of many roads in the borough made dangerous by the problem.

But the county authority's Tory highways boss Cllr Keith Iddon said his move was 'a disgrace'.

Cllr Harrison's motion reads: "Many roads in Hyndburn suffer poor drainage which causes hazardous driving conditions.

"We report blocked gullies with regularity only to find that the standard of works performed is inefficient and quite often offers no improvement whatsoever in remedying the

issue of flooding.

"One such road is Lottice Lane in Hyndburn between Britannia Inn on Haslingden Old Road and King Edward Pub at Guide.

"This road is a main cut through for many Oswaldtwistle residents to access Royal Blackburn Hospital.

" It is a very fast road with visibility issues at certain points. This road is quite simply flooded often even in light rain.

"As the weather grows colder conditions on this road will only worsen. I requested added storm drains in this area however as yet this has not occurred."

Cllr Harrison said: "The county council is reactive but not very good at being proactive.

"The state of the drains and gullies makes Lottice Lane dangerous. They need to solve this with proper storm drains.

"There are similar problems on Heys Lane and New Lane in Oswaldtwistle, and Lyndhurst Avenue in Knuzden as well as one many other roads in the borough.

"The system is simply not efficient and a waste of taxpayers’ money."

A county council spokesman said: "We have recently cleaned the drainage system along Lottice Lane, as well as making minor repairs to drainage infrastructure such as gully frames.

"We are aware there appear to be some underlying issues with the drainage system in this area and have arranged for a CCTV survey to take place within the next month."

Cllr Iddon said: "For a Labour council to put forward this motion is a disgrace. When the Conservatives took office we had to sort out Labour underinvestment in the roads.

"We have bought a new fleet of gully cleaners and worked to improve the state of our highways having sorted out the county council's finances."