THOUGH its long-overdue connection to the main motorway network almost five years ago took away its derisive "Road to Nowhere" tag, there is no doubt that the M65 still has some distance to go -- in terms of fulfilling its economic potential and as a strategic highway and jams-buster.

Now, a new call is being made for it to be extended eastward by transforming the A56 into a fully-fledged trans-Pennine route and ending the virtual 'cul-de-sac' that the M65 becomes at Colne.

The renewed demand for the route's extension from Colne to Yorkshire comes from the North West Regional Assembly -- the region's devolved-government-in-waiting -- and deserves backing from across East Lancashire.

For the plan would relieve traffic congestion -- often a nightmare at Colne.

It would bring more jobs as the thriving new business parks along the M65 corridor already testify.

And it would provide a new and much-needed east-west link across the Pennines -- the necessity for which is proven by the vastly overburdened M62.

Above all, the M65 was conceived as an economic lifeline for cut-off East Lancashire. And though it has succeeded spectacularly in bringing new jobs to our towns, the effect peters out at its eastern end where traffic chaos is a major handicap to inward business investment. The new route would dispel that drawback.

It would also bring tremendous relief to Colne and the villages along the present A56 to Yorkshire currently being pounded by heavy traffic.

And it would supplement the M62 at an important east-west link that would also prove an economic driver regionally as well as locally.

This new plan seeks to enhance and increase the M65's benefits and it deserves a swift go-ahead and the funding for it.