A BAN on heavy lorries using the notorious Grane Road will finally come into force this summer after highways bosses agreed to pay for new signs.

The news was revealed to concerned residents at Haslingden and Edenfield Area Board meeting, at Haslingden Primary School.

But they were angry after being told the ban, agreed before Christmas, would not be enforced for months.

After years of campaigning for safety improvements at the accident blackspot they said they were fed up with being "fobbed off."

Lancashire County Councillor Bob Wilkinson said the Highways Agency agreed to fund signs on the M65 and A56, estimated at £7,000.

But the Highways Agency said it could not afford to pay for the signs until the next financial year, beginning April.

One Grane Road resident said: "It is one of the most dangerous roads in the country but yet other roads, which people have not complained about, including Old Betts over to Rochdale have had all kinds of speed restrictions put in place.

"We have been campaigning for years for action and get ignored. Lancashire County Council should sort its priorities out."

Since the ban was announced there have been two accidents on the road and a lorry has jack-knifed.

Grane Road is a magnet for truckers out to save mileage, time and diesel by avoiding the longer route to the M65 at Huncoat -- despite signs directing them that way.

The weight restriction, designed to stop lorry drivers using the road as a rat-run between the A56 Haslingden bypass and Blackburn, is one of several measures the Grane Road Residents Association is campaigning for.

They also want a 40mph speed limit, speed cameras and a roundabout near Haslingden cemetery.

Inspector Caroline Edwards said mobile speed enforcement was being implemented but added: "It is not working because motorists coming the other way are flashing people to let them know there's a speed camera. This means we can't collate any evidence to say that speed is an issue on Grane Road and get a fixed camera."

The road was the subject of a Lancashire Evening Telegraph "Stop the Carnage Campaign" after residents voiced their concerns about a rise in the number of accidents and people using the route as a "rat-run."