RESIDENTS on Darwen's Birch Hall Estate are celebrating after hearing that £100,000 has been allocated to the area for traffic-calming measures.

The area has been beset by traffic problems over the years.

A public meeting attended by 40 was held in November, 1999, after a seven-year-old boy was knocked down.

And last Saturday David Aspin of Birch Hall Avenue joined in his neighbours' fight to stop dangerous driving on the estate after a lorry crashed into his garden in the middle of the night.

Coun Mike Barrett of Earcroft ward said: "There have been problems in Birch Hall Avenue for some time.

"We have looked into the issue and it seems a lot of the problems are caused by traffic speeding down the road.

"As a result of that, myself, and the other ward councillors have been working with officers in the council to come up with a scheme to prevent this happening.

"Now it has been confirmed that we have received £100,000 of funding over the next 12 months for traffic measures on this estate.

"This has been obtained through a public services agreement with the government to achieve targets such as a reduction in accidents."

Coun Barrett said traffic calming measures such as speed humps could be introduced on the estate and it would become a 20 mph zone. He added: "This is good news for the Birch Hall Estate."

Mr Aspin said the funding was "brilliant news" and something which the estate had needed for a long time.

"The problem is cars park on both sides of the road and the big wagons just knock wing mirrors off."

Tom Berry, who has lived on the estate for 29 years and whose grass verge was badly damaged by a wagon last year, said: "It's lovely news, it can't come soon enough and I know all my neighbours will say the same.

"There have been some very close accidents and folk have been worried about how dangerous the road is -- so this is fantastic news."