SCHOOL buses are to be banned from the centre of a Ribble Valley village in a bid to ease rush-hour traffic congestion.

Lancashire County Council has revealed new clauses are to be introduced into the contracts issued to local companies when tenders for services at three high schools are re-negotiated.

Services from St Augustine's RC High School in Billington will be most affected, with the contractor told to use the A59 and then the Whalley by-pass to get to Accrington, Padiham and Burnley rather than cutting through the centre of Whalley.

Several routes from Clitheroe Royal Grammar School and Ribblesdale High School, both in Clitheroe, will also be affected, although services which are designed to drop pupils off in Whalley will still be allowed into the village centre.

The move has been welcomed by Whalley councillor Joyce Holgate, who has been campaigning for action to tackle traffic congestion in the centre.

The main problem stems from cars parking on both side of King Street, in the centre of Whalley, which reduces the width of the road so much that for a bus to get through, traffic coming the other way has to back up.

A rush of buses at the end of the day, along with regular service buses, often leads to serious congestion, delaying buses for up to 15 minutes and infuriating car drivers.

A county council spokesman said: "As the contracts come up for renewal, we will be stipulating which roads the buses should use.

"It will particularly affect St Augustine's, where buses will instead use the A59 and then go on to the Whalley by-pass rather than through the centre of Whalley.

"It should make things quicker for the buses, because they won't be held up in the centre of the village.

"Buses coming from Ribblesdale and the Grammar School which don't stop in Whalley will also be diverted away."

Coun Holgate said: "This is good news because I have been asking for a long time for something to be done in King Street.

"It is particularly bad if a bus comes down Accrington Road and then tries to turn into King Street. Because the road is narrow, buses sometimes struggle to get round and it causes all sorts of traffic problems."

She added: "A lot of the buses have never needed to go through Whalley, they are just going on to Padiham, Accrington and Burnley."

A spokesman for Lancashire United said they hoped solution could be found to the traffic problems in Whalley, because their regular 225 service between Clitheroe and Bolton via Blackburn was often held up in the village.

Ribble Valley Council had hoped to create a long-term car park on land in the centre of the village to alleviate the parking problem.

But Whalley Parish Council has refused to sell the land, and Lancashire County Council is refusing to implement waiting restriction in King Street until off-street long-term parking is created.