THE REJECTION of a rival road scheme today gave a new kickstart to the campaign to build the Pendle A56 by-pass and end chaos at East Lancashire's biggest traffic bottleneck.

Now councillors are to demand a top level meeting in London with deputy Prime Minister John Prescott to demand that the Pendle A56 by-pass, a new fast link between East Lancashire and Yorkshire is built within five years.

Campaigners are also pressing for senior Government ministers to visit Pendle to see "at ground level" the daily gridlock chaos in the bottleneck North Valley Road area of Colne at the end of the M65. Their campaign has been given fresh impetus following a Government planning inspector's rejection of a rival scheme which had been earmarked for vital government cash. Meanwhile Pendle-based property developer Graham White is planning to build a hotel and conference centre at the Colne end of the M65 motorway. He has agreed a £601,000 deal to buy Pendle Council land at the junction of the motorway and Whitewalls Drive for the development. No planning application has been submitted yet. Last month Lancashire County Council was faced with four road schemes, including the A56 by-pass, to choose from. It decided on the Lancaster western by-pass, also known as the link from the M6 to Heysham, as the road it wanted built in the next five years. But last week a Government planning inspector put the brakes on the scheme when he rejected the route following a public inquiry.

Liberal Democrat councillor David Whipp, who represents West Craven on Pendle and the county councils, said Lancashire's Labour administration still wanted to press ahead with the Lancaster scheme despite the inspector's decision.

"What we're saying to the Government is that for a county the size of Lancashire to only be able to put forward one major route in the next five years is wrong," said Coun Whipp.

"There ought to be two major schemes in Lancashire, Lancaster and the A56 by-pass. It may be our scheme can go ahead first. If the county council puts all its eggs in Lancaster and it gets bogged down for five years in a planning wrangle then everybody loses out.

"I'm very confident the logic of two schemes has to be conceded and all the behind the scenes work being done lends me to believe there's some encouragement."