County to repair 75 extra roads

LANCASHIRE County Council will resurface an additional 75 roads in the year ahead after it received more money than it was expecting from the government for upkeep of the region’s highways.

County Hall officials last month laid out their maintenance plans for the year ahead on the assumption that they would get a reduced £20.1m settlement from the Department for Transport (DfT) for 2022/23.

However, the authority learned just days beforehand it would once again be handed the £28m that it was allocated last year.

Cabinet members have now approved a list of extra schemes to go with the 76 that they’d already agreed.

Labour opposition group leader Azhar Ali welcomed the investment, but said that there were roads across the county that were now “absolutely shot” - and asked what the future was for streets that “keep getting missed off [the list of repairs] year after year”.

However, cabinet member for highways and transport Charlie Edwards defended the authority’s strategy for deciding which routes should be prioritised for work.

“All of the schemes that were put forward by individual [councillors], members of the public or by our own highways engineers go through a ranking process and it’s done very much based on the evidence and the approach that we’ve got.

“The ones that met the criteria the most were the ones [selected],” he said.

Additional maintenance works planned in Hyndburn: West Street - Great Harwood, Rishton and Clayton-le-Moors - resurfacing from Blackburn Road to Hanson Street; Pickup Street - Accrington West and Oswaldtwistle Central - resurfacing from Spring

Hill Road South to the end of Pickup Street (Clifton Mill Gates); Victor Street

- Great Harwood, Rishton and Clayton-le-Moors - resurfacing from George Street to Pickup Street; Elm

Street - Great Harwood, Rishton and Clayton-leMoors - resurfacing full length; Clarence Road - Accrington West and Oswaldtwistle Central - resurfacing full length;

Pickup Street - Great Harwood, Rishton and Clayton-le-Moors - resurfacing from Barnes Square to Whalley Road.