ROAD users and MPs today voiced fears over plans to give county officials responsibility for key roads across East Lancashire, including the accident-plagued A59.

The Highways Agency has published a proposal that will make Lancashire and North Yorkshire County Councils responsible for maintenance of the A59 from next March.

Other roads to be put under local authority control include the M65 between junctions eight, the Manchester turn-off, and 10 at Burnley and the A646 from Padiham to Halifax.

The A59 has a history of accidents -- the latest at the Barrow link roundabout yesterday.

The proposal follows the 2002 ALARM survey from the road construction industry in May that said roads were underfunded to the tune of £1.2billion.

The report said that 80 per cent of local authorities believed this was a major threat to road safety and they spend over £100 million on accident claims.

A spokesman for the AA said: "We don't like it at all, it is just a money saving exercise rather than one that meets the needs of the road user.

"Local authorities have to juggle their cash between other pressures and standards will slip.

"The A59 is already down there with the most dangerous roads in the country."

An RAC spokesman added: "Local authorities need a £7.2 million budget just to get roads up to standard. Many roads are unsafe, 18 per cent, and there is a great danger that that these roads will become very unsafe."

MP Nigel Evans, Ribble Valley, said: "The important thing is that there have been a number of accidents on the A59 including a number of fatalities.

"People will want to know whether Lancashire County Council will be treating the safety aspect seriously.

Labour MP Greg Pope, Hyndburn area, said: "The issue is not who looks after the roads but how well they are maintained.

"I just hope that in future the improvement in the maintenance and safety will be kept up."

A spokesman for Lancashire County Council, said: "The county council would aim to maintain any de-trunked roads, which would be classified as A-roads, to the highest possible standards within its available resources."

John Mather, Highways Agency's Area Manager, said: "It is better if it is the local authority who looks after local transport, planning and development."

A spokesman from the Asphalt Industry Association (AIA), the industry body who published the ALARM report, said: "It's better for roads to be under local control but local councils are not getting the money to look after them properly."

Castle Cement uses the A59 to transport cement from its Ribblesdale plant in Clitheroe to destinations throughout the UK.

General manager Ian Sutheran, said: "We would not like to see maintenance and safety standards on it deteriorate."

Motorways and roads across Lancashire are set to get a £8million Highways Agency boost in the next year.

The cash will be spent on resurfacing roads, bridge renewal works and on improving the electronic signs that update motorists about traffic queues on major motorways.

But the only schemes in East Lancashire will be the rebuilding of the A59 Elker Land Bridge at Langho, which had to be demolished last summer, after it was hit by an excavator, and a £100,000 project looking at how to improve the M65/A5 from Haslingden to Earby.

Police said yesterday's accident occurred when a Honda CRV lost control on the roundabout and spun off into the rear of a parked Peugeot estate outside Park Farm Fisheries at around midday.

Michael Keogh, 20, of Pendleton Road, Wiswell, a passenger in the Honda, was taken to Blackburn Royal Infirmary with minor cuts to his face, head and hands, but not detained.

The driver of the Peugeot, Stephen Mayall, 56, from Bury, was detained overnight in the hospital with whiplash and concussion.