Pendle Liberal Democrat councillor David Whipp raises M65 safety issues with Lancashire County Council
Pendle Council leader, Councillor David Whipp is urging Lancashire County Council to bid for £15m. of Government funding for repair work on the M65 between Burnley and Colne amid ongoing safety concerns.
The Liberal Democrat, also a Lancashire county councillor, raised the issue at the last meeting of the county’s Environment and Transport Scrutiny Committee, which was considering LCC’s gulley emptying and drainage policies.
Coun. Whipp said defective drainage on the M65 between Burnley and Colne posed a safety risk. Sections had flooded for over a decade, and he had been told it would be very expensive to deal with the defective drainage, and that the motorway in Pendle was the only one that a county council was responsible for, rather than national highways.
Coun. Whipp said: “The M65 in Pendle is extremely dangerous whenever there's heavy rainfall. Drivers plunge into unseen deep water on the unlit motorway. This has been a massive problem since solid barriers were built on the central reservation. Flooding has been compounded by debris blocking road gullies, but there's an underlying problem with defective and inadequate drainage.
“It's going to be hugely expensive to fix the drainage, but it desperately needs to be done. Getting funding from the Government's structural programme looks like a way to get this sorted out. I'm lobbying our MPs to support this and doing everything else I can think of to make this happen.”
Drainage repairs had to come out of area budgets, affecting work to deal with other highway flooding problems.
Cabinet member for highways, County Coun. Warren Goldsworthy, said drainage work was estimated to cost £15m., and that the county council was trying to get the county section of the M65 taken over by the national highway body, but that the work would have to be done before.
Coun. Whipp pointed out that the Government is currently inviting bids for structural work, including culverts. He successfully proposed that the scrutiny committee ask the county council's cabinet to bid for the M65 work from the Government's structural fund.
Last month, Coun. Whipp raised an emergency item at Pendle's full council meeting following further recent flooding on the M65. The county council has announced emergency overnight closures over the next fortnight to deal with issues on the motorway, including clearing gullies and litter.