IS THERE no end to the roadworks fiasco on the A666 between Blackburn and Darwen? No wonder it's called the 'Road to Hell'.

After enduring more than five years of virtually non-stop navvying on this major commuter route, travellers are now told the recurring nightmare of delays and congestion is to last into the new millennium.

On the agenda next month is three weeks of resurfacing work on Craven's Brow, with the installation of "temporary" traffic lights already prompting Blackburn with Darwen Council to warn of long delays to traffic.

We see every prospect of chaos when Blackburn Rovers are at playing at home down the road at Ewood Park.

But, after that, the road is to be dug up twice in the year 2000 for two more lots of roadworks - because developers have failed to complete drainage work there.

Yet, precisely when these fresh miseries are to be visited on motorists the council does not know since they have not yet been told by the developers when they intend to dig.

And does that fact not provoke a question that deserves to be screamed aloud - that of just who on earth is in charge?

For it seems that no-one is.

The frustration and the powerlessness of the council is made plain by the vagueness over the upheaval in the offing. It has already been made clear by Darwen councillors handing out their own protest postcards earlier this year to motorists stuck in jams caused by sewer excavations that went on for months on the A666.

Indeed, one fed-up councillor was complaining in this newspaper 18 months ago of five years of disruption on the road and rush-hour journeys from Darwen to Blackburn taking an hour.

But is it not incredible that the council has no control over what takes place on its roads?

Surely, there ought to be one body - ideally, the local authority - that is in charge of co-ordinating projects by the different undertakings and ensuring that work is done properly and with the least-possible disruption.

This stretch of the A666 is vying for the title of the most dug-up road in Britain. It is a distinction we can do without.

What is needed is the government giving town halls the power to take charge and stop developers, sub-contractors, public utilities and others digging up important roads virtually as they please.

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