A PACKAGE of measures designed to improve and make Summerseat's notorious Bass Lane safer have been given the go-ahead.

New street lighting, resurfacing and drainage work and the provision of extra passing areas will be installed as part of a £350,000 improvement package by Bury Council.

The boundary wall running alongside Bass Lane will also be replaced. It will be of a stone structure on the side facing the road and of a different composition on the other side.

The work is expected to begin sometime in the next financial year (April 2002, to March 2003). The road will be closed while extensive works are carried out on Bass Lane.

Councillor Dorothy Gunther, who was present at Bury Council's executive committee which gave the plans the go-ahead, said: "This is the best birthday present I could have received.

"Bass Lane is in serious need of refurbishment. It has got to a stage where it is just falling apart. It could not stay as it was and I am pleased that this has been realised and that it will be made safer. "Inevitably the work will mean the road having to be closed, but there is nothing that can be done about that. The work will be worth it."

The announcement this week follows a public consultation in September over the proposals.

Villagers complained the lane had become a "rat-run" for commuters between the M66 and Holcombe Brook. And motorist said that there is poor visibility and inadequate space for vehicles to pass each other.

The matter was brought to a head when landowner John Barlow placed a barrier of rocks and poles along one side of the road, claiming that his land needed protection.

Coun Gunther said: "The poles and boulders are on private land so they will probably be removed while the refurbishment work takes place and replaced afterwards.

"However, the work undertaken by the council is designed to make the road safer, and I and other residents, many of whom responded to the consultation programme, would welcome any moves to improve Bass Lane."