EIGHT bridges in East Lancashire are to be given urgent repair work before weight restrictions have to be placed on them to prevent them buckling.

Lancashire County Council has placed the eight bridges - along with four others in the rest of Lancashire - at the top of its crisis list for repair work.

More than £750,000 has been diverted from road maintenance budgets to pay for the work which was not originally planned by highways chiefs.

Councillors visited Westminster to press ministers to grant the council extra cash and to explain that the county - especially East Lancashire - has a unique problem with weak bridges.

But the Government turned county hall pleas down and now the cash has had to be found from within existing budgets. Easington Bridge in Slaidburn, Narrow Gates Bridge and Black Moss Bridge in Barley, Bacup Bridge (North) and St James Street Bridge, Bacup, Many Brooks Bridge in Gregson Lane, Newchurch, Road Bridge in Rawtenstall and Green Brook Bridge in Padiham will be strengthened as a result.

Among the factors taken into account to place the eight East Lancashire bridges at the top of the list of urgency for repair work was the effect that weight restrictions would have on bus services.

County Coun Richard Toon, chairman of the council's highways and transport committee, said the decision had been a hard one to make.

He added: "Taking money out of principal road maintenance is not something we do lightly. But the number of bridges we have identified as needing urgent work is so high that we have no option.

"It is also important to remember that this is just the tip of the iceberg, many more bridges need repairs, they are just not as urgent.

"We will continue to lobby the Government to try to get an increase in the money they allow us for bridge repairs but the situation is getting worse day by day."

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