NEW signs banning heavy and wide lorries from a Rossendale street are so big that pedestrians are forced into the road to pass them.

The double posted signs, seven feet high and nearly five feet wide, banning large vehicles from Thornfield Avenue, Waterfoot, have been put up on Millarbarn Lane and Burnley Road East and were slammed by Coun David Baron as "ludicrous."

He told Rossendale Council's engineering and planning committee: "They are the size of motorway signs. No one will convince the people of Rossendale that they are justified.

"Even the signs banning heavy traffic from Bacup town centre are smaller. It is a nonsense to have signs of that size in a back street."

Heavy traffic has been banned from Thornfield Avenue because the culvert at the bottom of the street is dangerous.

Councillors have been warned it could be years before the Lancashire County Council has the cash to strengthen the culvert and, for the time being, the signs must be regarded as permanent.

But county engineers are to be asked to have another look at them to see whether they can be reduced in size. Borough engineer Philip Cunliffe told the committee it was possible the Burnley Road East sign could be attached to a wall but said the Millarbarn Lane sign could not be moved at all.

Coun David Hancock said the Millarbarn Lane sign gave the impression the ban referred to nearby Tenterfield Street rather than Thornfield Avenue because of the direction in which the arrow pointed.

He said anyone with a pushchair or in a wheelchair was forced into the road to get past the sign on the pavement on Burnley Road East.

And he claimed local people were being inconvenienced for the sake of warning "a handful" of lorry drivers who were unfamiliar with the area.

"The whole situation is quite ridiculous and illogical," he said.

Now councillors are taking steps to avoid a similar situation in River Street, Bacup, where a 17 tonne weight restriction is to be introduced to protect the weak bridge which runs the full length of the street.

Similar signs will be needed and councillors have asked toi see them before they are put in position.

The ban will extend to the council's own refuse collection vehicles and wagons used to clean out drains and sewers.

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