TRAFFIC should be allowed back through Nelson town centre to avoid a sales slump during a major roadworks project, a shopkeepers' leader has said.

But Lancashire County Council's member in charge of roads, County Coun Tony Martin, called the idea "baloney."

Shop bosses fear roads around the pedestrianised centre will grind to a halt when a three-month programme of major roadworks and bridge repairs begins in Lomeshaye Road at the end of October.

Work is also planned in Barkerhouse Road and Chapelhouse Road before the end of the year, and Railway Street will be closed when demolition begins for a town centre regeneration scheme, set to start within the next two months.

Nicholas Emery, of the Nelson town centre partnership, told Pendle Council's Nelson committee that the works could lead to a decline for shops and businesses as devastating as the slump when the Pendle Rise centre was extended three years ago.

He said the easiest way to combat the problems would be to temporarily open a single lane of one-way traffic through the centre.

But County Coun Martin said:"It's a lot of rubbish.

"If they had come up with that idea two years ago we might have been able to get somewhere, but they can't expect us to even discuss it with such a short time before the work starts - all the plans for traffic control are already in place.

"Perhaps Pendle Council should give more thought to its forward-planning process."

Committee chairman David Foster called on the county council, the authority now in charge of highways in Pendle, to ensure a strategy was in place to keep the cars flowing.

He said: "It's up to county to put in place diversions but at the same time we must try to protect Nelson town centre and the traders in it.

"Hopefully we will come to a agreement before work starts to get traffic flowing through the centre."