YOUR article on the recent cold snap and the resulting snowfalls (LET, January 29), pointed out that it took motorists one hour 15 minutes to drive from Darwen to Blackburn on January 28.

This may be understandable due to the extreme weather conditions, though as hundreds of motorists will bear testament, travelling times from Darwen into Blackburn every weekday morning (via the A666 route) remain extreme.

Only the other morning it took me 50 minutes to complete my daily journey from the Hollins Grove area of Darwen to the multi-storey car park in Blackburn.

I can break down this journey into two parts - 0815hrs to 0900hrs from Hollins Grove to the Fernhurst traffic lights, and 0900hrs to 0905hrs from the Fernhurst traffic lights to the multi-storey car park in Blackburn town centre. At no point did the weather or the road and driving conditions contribute to my progress (or lack of it) on this epic journey.

I wonder if anybody else has spotted the obvious obstacle that greets Blackburn bound motorists on the A666 every weekday morning?

Yes - the traffic lights that service the Fernhurst Farm estate. I appreciate the need for lights (though personally I wound prefer a mini roundabout) but I cannot accept the need to stop the flow of Blackburn bound traffic so frequently so as to let one or two waiting vehicles leave the Fernhurst estate.

Only 100 yards away from these lights, Bolton Road and Branch Road converge as they head towards Blackburn. The traffic lights at the Fernhurst estate change far too rapidly to facilitate the flow of traffic from that junction causing traffic to back up along Branch Road and Bolton Road.

It would seem to me that a simple tinkering with the timing of the sequence of these lights (a tactic that is already employed during peak times at the Aqueduct lights) would go along to alleviating these unnecessary tailbacks. Once through the Fernhurst lights drivers have a relatively clear run to Blackburn.

I am sure I am not the only driver who has noticed the relative inefficiency of the Fernhurst lights and the fact that traffic queues seem to miraculously disappear once the lights are safely negotiated.

With their present settings they are serving to significantly hinder the flow of traffic between Darwen and Blackburn. I wonder if something could not be done by the powers that be to improve this situation?

DEREK JACKSON, Harwood Street, Darwen.