Penwortham one-way plans scrapped, but cycle lane will still go ahead

Lancashire County Council had planned to change the traffic flow along Kingsway at its junction with the A59 Liverpool Road as part of work to create a new segregated cycle lane between Penwortham and Preston.

Under the proposed changes, vehicles would only have been able to exit Kingsway onto Liverpool Road - and not enter the side street from the main route. The idea was to prevent traffic turning right from the A59 - known locally along this stretch as Penwortham Brow - and potentially cutting across the path of cyclists using the new facility in the process.

However, the plans left locals fuming, with many complaining that the alternative route was inappropriate for the volume of traffic that would be forced onto it - and led to claims that barely any bike-riders were using a newly-installed cycle lane in the area.

A survey conducted by the Post during the morning rush hour on 7th July found only nine cyclists used the segregated Liverpool Road lane, close to the new Tesco, between 7.45am and 9am. During the same period, almost 600 vehicles used the junction with Kingsway.

Now, cabinet members at County Hall are to be asked to approve a revised £450,000 scheme which retains the cycle lane proposal, but sends the one-way plan into reverse.

It follows a consultation by the authority in which more than 500 objections were lodged - the majority regarding the one-way element of the scheme - and a survey by South Ribble MP Katherine Fletcher, which, as the Post revealed earlier this month, saw 91 percent of more than 1,200 respondents say that they were “very concerned” about the proposals.

Amongst the issues raised were worries about potential congestion on the narrow Priory Lane - via which drivers would have been diverted if they could not access Kingsway from Liverpool Road - and potential difficulties for emergency service vehicles accessing the area as a result.

Residents had also expressed concerns on social media about access to St. Fillan’s Medical Centre, located on Kingsway, and St. Mary’s Church nearby.

Under the redrawn scheme, a protected, two-way cycle facility will be created to connect an identical facility recently installed on the Preston-bound side of Liverpool Road from its junction with Cop Lane through to another section of segregated cycle lane across Penwortham Bridge - up to the A59's junction with Broadgate - which has been in operation since 2019.

Janet Stretch, who has lived in Penwortham for more than 25 years, welcomed the county council’s rethink of the original Kingsway plan, which she described as “an absolute nonsense”.