EXTRA pressure is set to be placed on highway chiefs to consider a relief road which would prevent Colne being choked by traffic.

Councillors in Pendle are to lobby County Hall over the possibility of resurrecting the forgotten A56 villages bypass scheme.

The bypass was once the third highest priority in Lancashire behind the M6 Heysham Link and a relief road for Ormskirk.

But now, with the M6 link approved and the Ormskirk scheme dismissed, town hall bosses are wondering why the A56 project is not being pursued with more vigour.

Council leader Coun Mike Blomeley said: “We have significant concerns about the issue of traffic congestion in Colne.

“The air pollution problem alone demonstrates the need to provide some sort of relief road.”

Originally, the A56 bypass would have followed the line of the former Colne to Skipton railway line, off Vivary Way.

But since then, discussions have centred on the possibility of a spur being created off the M65’s junction 13 at Barrowford, which eventually links back with the A56 beyond Foulridge.

County and borough councillor Shelagh Derwent added: “We could have had a motorway through there years ago and it would have solved all of this.”

The M65 was not extended beyond junction 14 several years ago, through Colne’s South Valley and Trawden, after an impassioned campaign by residents.

Councillors have now agreed to press for a meeting with the county council’s highways department over its approach to the bypass proposals.

Currently, a joint bid with Blackburn Borough Council to create a public transport corridor from Hyndburn to Darwen prov-ides the county’s other main focus.