RESIDENTS living near a busy Preston road are celebrating after a county council U-turn on plans to add a bus lane to the carriageway.

Delighted homeowners on London Road believe new proposals could mean the end of their year-long fight to stop the road moving nearer their houses.

Under original plans, youngsters in the area would also lose out - a nursery would be forced to part with a section of its playground.

But new technology, involving buses fitted with gadgets to speed up their journey through traffic lights, will now be considered as an alternative.

London Road resident and shop owner Paul Jagota said: "This is great news. People round here have been fighting for this a long time."

At a meeting this week Preston Council's Highways and Transport Committee welcomed the County Hall re-think.

Coun Ron Atkins, who lives near London Road and once spent £100 of his own cash so there could be a public meeting, was overjoyed.

He said: "Without the public I feel we would've lost. This was a question of people power."

Preston Council has always backed plans for the proposed 900-space park-and-ride scheme at the Capitol Centre in Walton-le-Dale but remained adamant an extra lane was not necessary.

A Lancashire County Council spokeswoman said the issue would go before its Highways Committee later in the year.

She added: "Land has been ear-marked but if it isn't needed it would be returned to the nursery."

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