WHAT a bungle!

We are in for the return of the Brownhill Roundabout mayhem that was supposed to have been banished at long last.

The name of this notorious East Lancashire road bottleneck on Blackburn's northern rim has been engraved for decades on the hearts of thousands of maddened motorists and harassed commuters.

But the 15 months of frustration, detours and cone clutter which road-users have endured at this spot were pains which most suffered in silence in the belief and expectation that, when the long-awaited £3.4million improvement scheme was complete, there would be relief at last.

And for shopkeepers in the Brownhill area in particular it was a long and costly ordeal as the months of roadworks cost them thousands of pounds in lost business.

Yet, what happens now that the dust has settled and the traffic flows smoothly and trade in the locality begins to pick up again?

Incredibly, it is disclosed that the diggers, the cones and temporary traffic lights are coming back!

There is, we are told, major sewer work to be done on either side of the new roundabout.

Why could the work not have been done in conjunction with the recently-completed improvement scheme, so that we could get all the traffic congestion over in one fell swoop? Good question!

One answer is that, to a degree, it was. North West Water did take advantage of the big Brownhill dig to enlarge the too-small sewers at the spot.

But those on either side of the roundabout need upgrading too - and because the work was not linked in with the new roundabout scheme, the area now faces more months of roadworks.

If this is sensible planning and prudent financial strategy, forgive us for thinking that, between them, North West Water and the Highways Agency have driven up a cul-de-sac.

So we ask again: why could not this extra, troublesome work have been tied in with the rest of the Brownhill scheme?

Alas, this newspaper cannot deliver a credible answer to our readers - particularly since the water company, living up to its well-earned reputation of hardly giving a fig for its accountability to the public, actually spent weeks denying they were about to start more roadworks at Brownhill.

All the same, someone should answer for this bungle.

Firstly, with an apology to the messed-about road users and, secondly, with compensation for the shopkeepers who stand to have their livelihoods coned off yet again.

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