Road closures planned for city centre over Fishergate project extension

Work is now being done to extend the scheme to Church Street, in Preston, and this will entail road closures from this Sunday, August 21.

The work will take place 10pm to 6am, from Sunday, August 21, until Friday, August 26, and from Tuesday, August 30 to Thursday, September 1.

It involves the section of Church Street from Guild Row to Cheapside, with the majority of the work taking place from Guild Row to Lancaster Road.

Throughout these times, Church Street will be closed between Lancaster Road and St John’s Place.

This closure will then be extended on Thursday, August 25 to the junction with Fishergate.

The works on Church Street are to extend the extensive and long-running refurbishment that Lancashire County Council has been doing on Fishergate.

County Coun Jennifer Mein, leader of the county council, said: “These city centre improvements will help to bring in new businesses and attract more people to this part of the city.

“Working in such a busy area will cause some disruption, but we’ve been focused on keeping this to a minimum throughout the scheme, while making sure that people can continue to access businesses.

“I’m sure that people will be happy when they see the completed improvements.

“We’re looking forward to seeing the benefits that it brings to this part of the city centre,” she added.

The work on Church Street aims to create a more pedestrian-friendly city centre and attract more commercial investment.

The area on Fishergate is now ‘shared’ between motorists, pedestrians and cyclists, with no-one having automatic right of way.

However, the Evening Post reported last week on concerns that the layout at the junction of Fishergate and Corporation Street was causing confusion among motorists.

A stone bollard at the junction has repeatedly been knocked over by drivers failing to 
negotiate the plinth, and some believe it is supposed to be a roundabout.