YOU either love it or loathe it!

The £145 million M65 extension which finally linked East Lancashire to the M6 was opened last month amid much publicity.

It was 20 years in the making and had never gone short on controversy.

Even at the opening, there were problems when Home Secretary Jack Straw was jeered by the very protesters who had tried to stop the road's path through the countryside.

Now the so called road-to-nowhere is finally a road-to-somewhere.

Communities in and around Blackburn have seen traffic drop drastically and motorists have given the route the thumbs up after it helped trim minutes off their times in and out of the town and to Burnley, Accrington and Preston.

But it's not all been good news. Preston New Road was one of the main routes in and out of Blackburn.

Regularly congested, it was a driver's nightmare. But now it is almost deserted and that has spelled disaster for the Halfway House pub which stands at the side of the road. Manager Bernard Marek said: "I'm not exaggerating when I say business has been destroyed at a stroke.

"We are a pub which relies on passing trade and that has all gone.

"We particularly rely on the meals side of our business with our Beefeater restaurant and that is suffering.

"Of course the M65 has its benefits for motorists but there are two sides to every story and for us it's been a nightmare.

"We have a hard core of regulars but that's not enough. It's hurting and it's hurting a lot."

Just up the road at Kentucky Fried Chicken, staff had been bracing themselves for the worst.

Supervisor Evelyn Dempsie said: "We did get some passing trade and we thought we might be hit but most of our customers are regulars and we've been okay so far."

At the opposite side of town, traffic along Preston Old Road has also dropped.

Max Curruthers, who owns the Spar shop on Preston Old Road in Feniscowles, said: "There has been a dramatic drop in the number of cars passing but fortunately we don't rely on passing trade.

"In one way the opening has been good for us because we are getting some customers in who are coming off the motorway who may not have used this road before.

"I know people living in this area are pleased with the reduction in traffic."

Darwen councillor Dave Smith said people in the town were fed up of the huge queues the opening has created in Darwen.

He said the congestion was so severe at times a journey from Darwen to Blackburn could now take an hour. The Highways Agency says it is now working to resolve the problem which has been caused by two sets of traffic lights near the motorway junction.

Head of Darwen Vale High School John Strivens said the school, which is close to a motorway junction, was delighted it had finally opened.

He said: "There is only minimal screening at the moment but we are very happy with the noise levels and they are not proving to be a problem.

"Our staff travelling from Preston and Rossendale are very pleased their journey times have been cut."

But the link has also produced a boom time for burglars. Residents in Brindle say raids have increased in the last few weeks and blame quicker escape routes along the M65 for the rise.

Lancashire Constabulary's motorway division now has responsibility for all the M65 after taking over from officers in the divisions which bordered its route.

An unmarked Rover car with state of the art video equipment on-board are among the "weapons" being used to crack down on rogue motorists.

A motorway division spokesman said: "We've not experienced any major problems so far but the festive period when people are off work and not using the roads is probably not the right time to judge it."

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