Colne’s congested roads set to be fixed

1:00pm Friday 3rd August 2012 in News Photograph of the Author By Peter Magill, Chief reporter

WORK is set to begin soon on a major review which could one day provide some much-needed relief for Colne’s congested roads.

Air quality zones have been declared along some of the town’s busiest roads due to the heavy traffic flows along the likes of Vivary Way, North Valley Road and Windsor Street.

Now county councillor George Askew has received confirmation that the M65 to Yorkshire Corridor Study is set to commence in the next few weeks. Plans for the already-approved A56 villages bypass, affecting Colne and West Craven, will be scrutinised by roads experts.

The £36.7million road, running for seven-and-a-half miles, if progressed would run along part of the former Colne to Skipton rail line route.

And the possiblity of smaller-scale interventions, will also be investigated as part of the nine-month long £100,000 study process.

The review will study both the town’s links through to West Craven and, North Yorkshire beyond, but connections with West Yorkshire, through to Cowling, Crosshills and Steeton.

Coun Askew said: “The purpose of this study is to identify and assess whether there are smaller-scale interventions that could be introduced to reduce traffic through Colne that are affordable and deliverable in advance of any bypass.

“But we’ll also review the approved A56 Villages Bypass scheme and potential alternatives.” In the 1980s a concerted campaign was mounted in opposition to proposals to extend the M65 through South Valley, which led to the clearance of much of Waterside.

In a letter to Coun Askew, County Coun Tim Ashton, highways cabinet member, said: “It is anticipated that work on the study will commence within the next few weeks and take approximately nine months to complete.”

Comments(12)

travel happy wanderer says...
2:42pm Fri 3 Aug 12

This route was mentioned 20yrs ago so if it takes as long for study to take place we will wait a long time for this road, The only people to gain are those doing the £100,000 survey not the motorist or local people.

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eastlancslad says...
3:27pm Fri 3 Aug 12

Travel happy, I can remember exactly 38 years ago the building of the M65 was being discussed, and would eventually extend into West Yorkshire. This would connect to what is now known as the Keighley by-pass, (yes I know it does'nt actually by-pass Keighley), which would get us all into Bradford in the blink of an eye.
Ha!

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Izanears says...
3:48pm Fri 3 Aug 12

I'm not holding my breath!!!!!!

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travel happy wanderer says...
5:18pm Fri 3 Aug 12

eastlancslad, You are not wrong I can remember looking at plans for M65 back if 1971 because it would run through my then wifes fathers farm, But i was meaning the bypass to Skipton,

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mikepatash says...
12:07am Sat 4 Aug 12

the M65 just simply ending at Colne has got to be one of the worst planning decisions in UK history. A busy motorway that connects the M6 to well let's face it, a small market town with poor roads, in and out of the town. Then to allow more and more big retailers that encourage heavy vehicle traffic, was only ever going to create gridlock. If East Lancs is ever to shed it's down at heel image, we need to improve infrastructure and finally join up the M65 to Yorkshire and beyond.

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kate11 says...
10:07am Sat 4 Aug 12

Lets us decimate any bit of countryside we have left seems to be the order of the day!!! The traffic management in Colne is a joke! The powers that be in local council allowed Boundary Mill to build a huge store at the end of the M65 which adds to the congestion.. They also allowed KFC, McDonalds Matalan Sainsburys etc to build stores around an already congested area on North Valley Rd. They then put in loads of traffic lights instead of a large round about near Sainsburys and left the road instead of widening it along North Valley when they had the chance. Colne centre is a bottle neck also because they have made strictures in the road in the centre to slow the traffic down! All this was for a purpose to show how Colne is a bottleneck so that they could receive funding for an extension to the M65! Most of these shops will suffer if a bypass is built as people zoom past Colne.. You only have to look what has happened to Nelson and Haslingden since the motorway was built! No one goes there, they just keep on going and they are now ghost towns.. Rather than look to build another bypass and destroy countryside and push the problem further along the road why do the council not look at sorting out the traffic in Colne sensibly or do they not want to!

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Pendlesider says...
7:23pm Sat 4 Aug 12

surely the above should read 'Poor' Air quality zones have been declared along some of the town’s busiest roads due to the heavy traffic flow...
.
the 'Study' is set to commence in the next few weeks... as commentors say ,,,, it's poor planning that's gonna take some revamping just to alleviate the bottleneck

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Colunio says...
9:12pm Sat 4 Aug 12

The M65 South Valley extension was only abandoned due to the opposition of the sandal wearing , tree hugging Liberals who just happened to live around the proposed route and hate anything motorised. A further lengthy £100k "Study" is simply not required. Immediate action is.

Colne Town Centre's traffic problems would be alleviated at a stroke by replacing the Zebra Crossing on Market Street with a Pelican or Puffin crossing. Currently all traffic comes to a standstill as a procession of individuals cross the road,

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Izanears says...
11:58am Sun 5 Aug 12

Oh and don't forget folks, that in addition to all the other holdups, some folks want to open a railway line that goes right acrossthis busy road. We are sorry about the delay road users, but the gates are closed for ten minutes to allow the 5.25 to Skipton to go through!!!!!!LOL

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if only this was Yorkshire says...
9:18am Mon 6 Aug 12

Well, if this is anything to do with Lancashire County Council, abondon hope................
..................

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sim1846 says...
10:48am Mon 6 Aug 12

Izanears wrote:
Oh and don't forget folks, that in addition to all the other holdups, some folks want to open a railway line that goes right acrossthis busy road. We are sorry about the delay road users, but the gates are closed for ten minutes to allow the 5.25 to Skipton to go through!!!!!!LOL
Well what a fool to think that when the Colne to Skipton Railway is reopend, your going to have a level crossing, you should take a look at all the study documents on the SELRAP website mate.

First of all, when engineers have looked at the railway and the road, they have all said that, the railway would reduce the trafic back-ups on Vivary Way and North Valley, due to the type of road under bridge that would be constructed, this would knock out 3 sets of traffic lights all in one hit, during constuction of the railway, their would be a temp road bridge put in place, and all the work would be done under it.

Now I know that the A56 could be taken over the moss via junction 13 instead at Nelson or the Yorkshire trafic could go via Clitheroe which it once did, until they de-trunked the road.

All your going to get by building the A56 anyway is a Traffic jam at the other end, and why are they even thinking of building a road anyway, when, less people will be driving cars over the next 10 to 15 years, its just mad, its not going to resolve any issues.

By the way the Railway would create far more jobs for the region than any road would.

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travel happy wanderer says...
12:48pm Mon 6 Aug 12

Colunio wrote:
The M65 South Valley extension was only abandoned due to the opposition of the sandal wearing , tree hugging Liberals who just happened to live around the proposed route and hate anything motorised. A further lengthy £100k "StudySpot on there Colunio I have been saying that for yrs, Also why did they make entry into carpark at the side of the Red Lion that should have been the exit from carpark that holds traffic up while they wait to turn in. I think they do it to hold traffic up on purpose.

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