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Bypass battle for blue route
Route change: Mick Cronin
Town councillors are calling for a rethink over the route of a controversial bypass.
It is more than 30 years since plans for a Penwortham bypass were first mooted by Lancashire County Council (LCC) to help ease rush hour congestion along Liverpool Road.
The proposal, which was shelved more than a decade ago, has now been revived but the preferred route is at the centre of new controversy.
Since the 1990s, a blue route from the Longton bypass junction with Chapel Lane, to the Broad Oak Lane roundabout in Penwortham has been protected from building as a favoured option.
However, this option is controversial as it would cut across large amounts of farmland and impact on the rural villages of Whitestake and New Longton.
But the latest plan favours the brown route, which would be from Howick playing fields off Liverpool Road coming out at the Broad Oak Lane roundabout.
This shorter route, which would be built over fields adjacent to Lindle Lane, received a mixed reception at a recent consultation event.
Penwortham Town Council has come out in favour of the original, longer, blue road bypass and is calling on LCC to change its preferred route.
Michael Cronin, democratic services manager at Penwortham Town Council, said members felt the brown route would not solve congestion issues at Hutton and Penwortham.
A report sent from Penwortham Town Council to LCC says: “The council re-affirms its unequivocal support for the blue route and urges in the strongest terms that this option be pursued as speedily as possible.”
The town council also says it is concerned the bypass will not be completed until 2023 under the propsed timeframe .
Its report adds: “It was agreed that the timescales did cause great concern and the sooner the work is done, the better, to reassure the people of Penwortham that the intolerable traffic situation is to be alleviated.”
David Bennett, of Penwortham Bypass Action Group, is also in favour of the blue route.
He said: “If they want a ready-to-shovel scheme, then why not go for the previous (blue) route which has been protected for years?”
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Weather for Preston
Sunday 19 May 2013
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Temperature: 10 C to 16 C
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