Headteacher praises transformation of busy Accrington road

A primary school headteacher has welcomed vital safety features that have been revitalised as part of a major resurfacing scheme on a busy road in Accrington.

Lancashire County Council's highways teams are well underway with the £6.1m Local Deterioration Fund programme, which aims to resurface sections of road which are in the worst condition to reduce the need for pothole repairs this winter.

Cllr Rupert Swarbrick, cabinet member for Highways and Transport, visited Barnfield Street last week, which has had £64,000 invested from the fund, to meet members of the team who were putting the finishing touches to the road markings and speed bumps.

He met Lesley Pemberton, headteacher of Benjamin Hargreaves Primary School and young pupils, who told him how important it was that the safety features had been reinstated.

Lesley said: "The no-parking areas at the front of school are much better, because they really had faded to nothing and parents were regularly parking there.

"The speed bumps have been built up higher, which will slow traffic and make the road safer, and the path that we have to cross on a regular basis to get to the playground is much clearer now for us, as we go into winter."

Cllr Swarbrick also met Garreth Kelly, highways manager for countywide projects, who told him about how important these works are in the run up to winter.

Garreth said: "The public are always happy to see the work taking place and they are very thankful for what we do.

"They understand the reasons that the work takes place and we always try to minimise the disruption, doing schemes outside schools in the holidays where possible.

"The LDF programme repairs residential areas where our team are repairing potholes week after week, especially after winter weather. The residents could expect not to see us again on this road for the next 15 years or so."

Cllr Rupert Swarbrick, cabinet member for Highways and Transport, said: "We understand that potholes are a major bugbear of all road users - I'm one of them, and I totally get that. This year we're investing £6.1million pounds in schemes to address the worst areas of potholes, which we don't want as the wet weather increases over winter.

"Bringing all Lancashire’s roads into good condition would require upwards of £160million, but we only receive around £32 million in government funding each year. We'd love to invest more, but at the moment we don't have that kind of resource.

"Due to the exceptionally wet weather between autumn 2023 and spring 2024 we had far more potholes than usual on our roads during last winter and, even though we brought in extra contractors, our repair teams could not keep up. A major focus for us this year has been to make good quality repairs to the worst areas and prevent so many potholes appearing in future.

"Lancashire's roads support more than 4.6million journeys every day. Maintaining 4,300 miles of road is a huge challenge—heavy traffic, 38,000 utility works every year, and extreme weather put constant strain on our network. We know the impact road conditions have on your daily life, and our teams are working hard to keep you moving."