DEVELOPERS are proposing to build a new road between Lostock Hall and Walton-le-Dale as part of a huge scheme to relieve traffic on some of the main routes into Preston.

A planning application for the route from Leyland Road to London Way is to be considered at a South Ribble Borough Council planning meeting on Wednesday, December 12.

The link could form a crucial part of a planned £25m Total Transport Network (TTN), which is a multi-agency scheme to improve Preston, South Ribble and Chorley's main arteries.

Councillor Jeff Knowles, cabinet member for highways and infrastructure, said the scheme could see an end to the congestion suffered by commuters during the daily rush hours.

"We are planning this now with Lancashire County Council and all the boroughs and districts of Preston, South Ribble and Chorley,"he said. "This is a new transport system and a very, very large idea."

Part of the TTN could involve gantries at motorway junctions and main roads with devices to monitor traffic. These could inform drivers which routes are already congested so they could avoid them and take different routes.

"This scheme is not that far in the future," said Councillor Knowles. "This new road could be crucial to the TTN in Leyland to tackle congestion.

"Although nothing is concrete yet. There are many plans that get put in and then fall through."

The proposed road between Lostock Hall and Walton-le-Dale could take traffic away from the lower section of London Way which gets chronically congested every day with rush hour traffic leaving the M6 and M65.

It would be built in stages by developers Red Row and Wainhomes who plan to line it with houses.

A spokesman for South Ribble's planning department said the road would be the 'springboard' for residential developments along its length.

The spokesman added: "We've got a planning application going before the council next Wednesday. It's for a 450 metre stretch of road at Leyland Road, Lostock Hall.

"It's the first part of a road which is intended to link up to Walton Park. This will be the springboard to residential developments, eventually, to the south of the road and then further up.

"The application is a joint one between Red Row and Wainhomes."