TWO councillors are demanding police action against drivers using a pedestrianised road as a short-cut.

Stan Horne and George Griffiths are fuming that people are constantly ignoring the prohibition order on Blackburn Road, Accrington, which runs in front of the town hall.

Only buses and vehicles making deliveries are supposed to use the route, which was pedestrianised to urge drivers to use the town centre bypass instead of driving through the heart of the shopping area.

Police today said officers were catching drivers in the act, but said it was impossible to deploy extra officers to the task.

Coun Horne said: "If you stand in front of the town hall for any length of time, you will see dozens of cars come passing by. The road is supposed to be out of bounds and people need to know they can be caught and fined for breaking the rules.

"If the police won't punish the people responsible, we might as well open it up again." Coun Griffiths added: "There is a CCTV camera which looks over this stretch of road. It is linked to the police station. All it needs is for them to look closely at the footage for a while and fine people. Word would soon get round.

"It is dangerous for people to drive along a road which walkers think is pedestrianised."

Sgt Stuart Isherwood, from Accrington's road traffic unit, said today: "Officers working in the town centre do stop people caught driving through this road and do issue fines.

"But the sheer amount of work in watching the CCTV camera footage, issuing summonses and so on makes it an impossible task. We have finite resources and they have to be targeted at accident blackspots, which this road is not." Members of the town centre regeneration board have now asked the council to consider re-opening the stretch. At their meeting last week, traders said they felt re-opening the road would boost trade.

Labour councillors opposed the idea, saying it would clog up the town centre with traffic, polluting the shopping area.