A COMPROMISE has been reached over controversial plans for double yellow lines outside houses to protect a dangerous bridge.

Residents of Thornfield Avenue, Waterfoot, faced parking restrictions because the cast iron bridge at the bottom of their road was in a dangerous condition.

Rossendale engineering and planning committee recommended narrowing the bridge so heavy goods vehicles could cross it.

It further recommended single yellow lines near the junction with Miller Barn Lane so lorries would still be able to turn into Thornfield Avenue.

Waterfoot CP School is also on the road and the restrictions will mean lorries delivering to Mannings Bakery will have to pass the school twice.

Chairman Coun Alan Fishwick said: "In January we hope to look at traffic management in the whole area. "We could consider imposing a 20 mph speed limit as well as traffic calming measures.

"We have about nine similar bridges, all built about the same time in the late 19th century.

"Some are private and some on public roads.

"To put a weight restriction on the bridge would have been difficult to enforce.

"It is cast iron and when it goes it will crack and collapse so we had to take action.

"The bridge would probably cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to repair and money is not likely to be available for it for a minimum of ten years and, more realistically, not for fifteen or twenty years."

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