PROPOSALS to build a "bus corridor" linking Bury, Bolton and Rochdale have been approved by Bury Council's Executive.

During the meeting on Wednesday, councillors approved plans for the A58 Northern Orbital Quality Bus Corridor (QBC) which will begin in Bolton and stretch along the A58 through Bury, Heywood and Littleborough.

The proposals include the introduction of three sections of bus lane along Bolton Road in Bury with improved bus stops and more pedestrian crossings.

The project, part of the Greater Manchester Local Transport Plan, is funded by the GMPTA and aims to encourage people to leave their cars at home helping to achieve a cleaner, safer and greener borough.

Councillor Wayne Campbell said: "Hopefully it will start encouraging people to catch buses into town centres instead of sitting in queues of traffic and watching the bus go past."

The executive heard from Borough Engineer Mike Cannon that the Bury to Manchester QBC had seen a 50 per cent increase in patronage in the last three years along with improved bus lanes and better signal arrangements.

Councillor Roy Walker added that he supported the proposals so far but told the executive he would like to see more evidence of success from other bus corridors.

He said: "If it increases use of public transport and gets more people out of cars, it is a success, but this isn't London and there isn't a bus every minute. Bus lanes have got to be used; we don't want a two mile queue of traffic with an empty bus lane, and we need more evidence before more money is spent on them."