AN ACCIDENT blackspot will be overhauled before a new Burnley superschool opens next year.

Highways bosses say there have been 11 road accidents which left people injured at the busy junction of Rossendale Road and Coal Clough Lane in the past five years.

And now they have drawn up a raft of improvements ahead of the opening of 750-pupil Hameldon Community College in September next year.

New red road markings will be drawn to warn approaching cars of the junction, and it will be narrowed and squared off to make it easier for cars to pull out.

Meanwhile, a ‘pedestrian refuge island’ will be built to make it easer for people to cross Rossendale Road.

County Coun Peter McCann, chairman of the Lancashire Local - Burnley committee, which rubber stamped the plans, said: “The junction of Rossendale Road and Coal Clough Lane is particularly dangerous and there have been a number of accidents in recent years.

"This, together with the fact that the Hameldon Community College is being built nearby in the next two years means that something has to be done.

"Most people who attended the Lancashire Local meeting agreed that this safety scheme was the best way forward and I'm pleased that it has now been approved.”

Lancashire County Council engineer Ray Bennett said: “The road markings we're adding will provide motorists with an extra warning about the junction encouraging them to slow down and the pedestrian refuge will also give people a safe halfway crossing point on Rossendale Road.

"The junction improvements have been specifically designed to address the number and nature of the collisions, while catering for vulnerable pedestrians walking to and from the new school.”

Work on the road improvements is expected to start in the next few months.

The junction is just yards from where the new Hameldon Community College will be situated.

The ‘superschool’ site will also house a new £5.6million drugs and sexual health centre and the 40-pupil Rose School for pupils with behavioural difficulties.