PLANS for a £10million road which will lead through the green belt to link two waste sites have been announced.

The new road to the planned Huncoat Waste Technology Park will link to nearby Whinney Hill tip and aims to take lorries off residential roads.

Wagons will be able to access both waste sites from a new junction at the Griffin roundabout in Burnley Road, Huncoat.

At present lorries access the existing tip by either coming off at junction seven of the M65 and going up through Whalley Road and onto Whinney Hill Road, or off at junction eight, down Burnley Road and through the centre of Huncoat along Highergate, Lowergate and Station Road.

Local councillors had opposed the siting of the new road, hoping that the entrance for the sites could lead from an extra exit from junction eight of the M65 or from the A56.

But that idea was rejected by Lancashire County Council planners after the Highways Agency raised safety concerns.

Now the county council has applied for planning permission to Hyndburn Council to build the new road.

The proposed route of the new road will lead from Burnley Road to a junction with Altham Lane then proceed to Whinney Hill Road at the junction with Bolton Avenue.

Huncoat councillor Paul Gott said there were mixed feelings in the village about the new road.

He said: "The road could be very useful to alleviate traffic problems through the centre of Huncoat but there are concerns about the exact route.

"The extra number of vehicles that will use the new road could make the Griffin roundabout a real traffic blackspot and the amount of green belt land it is taking up is a worry."

Coun Gott said that there were also concerns that there could be further industrial development now on the green belt.

A county council spokesman said: "The link road will help to ensure that waste traffic has minimum impact on local residents by routing HGVs away from residential areas on Bolton Avenue and in Huncoat village.

"The proposed Whinney Hill link road provides not only an opportunity to reduce the number of heavy goods vehicles using Bolton Avenue but also provides a means of re-routing some of the heavy goods traffic that approaches Whinney Hill and Huncoat from Whalley Road.

"The area around the "Hare and Hounds" junction in Whalley Road, Clayton-le-Moors, suffers from poor air quality and a reduction in the number of heavy goods vehicles using this stretch of road would be a significant step forward in helping to reduce congestion and improve air quality."

He said that compulsory purchase orders for the land required for the road and the waste park were set to begin in the near future.

The Huncoat Waste Technology Park on the site of the former power station has already been given planning permission. It will handle 30,000 tons of kitchen and garden waste per year from across East Lancashire as well as being a tranfer station dealing for general household waste.

Construction of the waste centre and link road is planned to start in September next year.