Bypass would ‘spoil’ our land

The brief given to Jacobs Consultants was limited to schemes within East Lancashire. However, they felt fit to comment that improvements to the A59 (Skipton to Preston) would result in a similar reduction of through traffic at a lower cost.

Also, the Yorkshire planners do not think the A56-A6068 route is the right option. Given that the volume of traffic through Colne has barely increased over the past 10 years, and the number of HGVs has reduced, the need for a full-blown bypass looks overstated.

Jacobs also listed several low-cost options that would improve traffic flow but which have been discarded in favour of the bypass. It is worth remembering the existing Barrowford bypass has shown that once a newly developed road encloses land between itself and an established road this area is often deemed spoiled, leaving it open for development. This appears to be the case within the green belt round Heirs House.

K. Whinney

Red Lane, Colne