A SIGN which directs fast-flowing traffic on to Grane Road will be removed this week - two months after the Highways Agency boss announced the work would be done.

The pledge has been made to the Lancashire Evening Telegraph by highways chiefs, almost two years after residents began campaigning for changes to the sign on the A56 Haslingden bypass.

They have blamed the sign for the large numbers of HGVs which thunder past their homes everyday and celebrated in August when Highways Agency boss Kevin Lasbury agreed with them and vowed to change the sign and direct lorries away from the road as soon as possible

But two months later they are still waiting for action.

When contacted by the Lancashire Evening Telegraph yesterday, a spokesperson for the Central Office of Information initially said that Lancashire County Council had been ordered to do the work on behalf of the Highways Agency two months ago.

But later, another spokesman said that in the past two months the Agency had only been "considering" the best way to help solve the problem of large numbers of HGVs using Grane Road.

The spokesperson said: "Although the Grane Road is not our direct responsibility, the Highways Agency realises there are problems on that road and works with the local authorities to help solve them.

"We have been considering for two months the best way to help and the sign on the A56 directing traffic to Blackburn South along the Grane Road will be removed this week.

"Also, black and white lorry signs designating the A56 as a lorry route will be placed all the way along that road to encourage HGVs to use it instead of Grane Road." The Highways Agency is also planning safety work on the A56 to make it safer for pedestrians crossing the bypass.

The sign on the M65 directing traffic to Haslingden along the Grane Road will not be removed as it is intended for local traffic only and Manchester-bound traffic is already directed further along the motorway and on to the A56.

In the past two months two teenagers have been killed and nine people injured on the Grane Road.

Just three weeks ago Blackburn College students Gareth Edwards, 19, and Joseph Slupski, 17, both of Harwood, Bolton, lost their lives in a horror crash close to the Grey Mare pub.

And on Monday morning six people were injured after an accident on the notorious hilltop route.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.